


to be loved (and to be in love)

by nouiiam



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Blow Jobs, Bottom Louis, Drama Student Louis, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Matchmaking, Miscommunication, Music Student Harry, Pining Harry, Popular Louis, Secret Crush, Shy Harry, Smut, Top Harry, Virgin Harry, Virgin Louis, but who doesnt love cliche high school aus right?, i never know how to tag these, i think thats it, this is such a cliche to be honest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 10:59:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3647826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nouiiam/pseuds/nouiiam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"What? I’m a very quiet person." Harry shrugs, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.</i> </p><p>  <i>Louis purses his lips.”You seemed a bit more reckless, I guess,” He says. “Must be the curls.” </i></p><p>  <i>"Must be," Harry agrees, nodding and smiling. Louis makes a humming noise and pokes the corner of Harry’s mouth.</i></p><p>  <i>"Those dimples, too. Very rebellious looking," He tells him, crossing his arms and grinning like mad. </i></p><p>-or the one where Louis’s popular, Harry’s not and they bond by trying to get their friends together while accidentally matchmaking the entire school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to be loved (and to be in love)

**Author's Note:**

> and here it is, the longest fic i have ever written ever (as far as one shots go)!!!!
> 
> thank you to brittany ungodlythighs for editing this for me and being a helping hand through the writing process. also thank you to my boss for not having scheduled me for a week so i could procrastinate and type out the remaining 16k in 2 days. you guys are the true mvps.
> 
> title is from 18 by one direction! happy reading:)
> 
> [fanmix](https://play.spotify.com/user/simplemelodies/playlist/0OfOjVk1wA7FKeKbKE57G7) by [ontangledshores](http://ontangledshores.tumblr.com/). thank you so much!!

"You're gonna be famous one day." A voice says from behind Harry. Harry looks up from his notebook, raising an eyebrow at the boy in front of him. He's seen him before. No, that's an understatement. He's seen him everywhere around school before. In all of the plays, at lunch causing a scene with his friends, at all of the school football games. It was Louis Tomlinson, the most well known and well liked boy in school. He also happened to be Harry's crush throughout all four years of high school.

 

"Me?" Harry asks, because what the  _fuck_? Louis's never noticed him the past three years and now here he is, first day of senior year, right in front of him. It was like everything's gone out of order. He didn't even know Louis knew he existed up until now.

 

"No one else is out here," Louis says, glancing around the football field before looking back at Harry. "Harry, right?"

 

Harry nods, shutting his notebook and going to put it in his bag. Louis reaches out, though, grabbing it from him and glancing over the front cover. He sits down besides Harry on the grass, crossing his legs and glancing at the younger boy. "Do you mind if..." He trails, biting his lip and waiting for Harry to answer. Louis wanted to read his notebook. He wanted to read all the songs and little notes that he had written over the years whenever he had a moment alone. He wanted to read what he had written about Louis. And he doesn't know why, but he wants to let him.

 

So he nods and Louis opens the notebook, eyes trained on the words and silently mouthing them to himself. Harry watches him, tapping his fingers against his thighs and humming softly. Louis's never noticed him the past three years, why now all of a sudden? He had been to all of Louis's games and all of the school plays he had been in, but Louis never once acknowledged him. This was strange, but it was certainly a great start to senior year.

 

"So you wrote all of those songs?" Louis asks when he's halfway through the journal. Harry furrows his eyebrows. Of course he's written all of the songs in his journal, that's why he always had it with him. He remembers he had forgot that he had put it in his locker before school started and had spent the entire day freaking out because he thought he had lost it or someone had stolen it. He actually cried on Niall's shoulder before he opened his locker and saw it sitting right there. Niall wouldn't stop laughing at him.

 

"What songs?"

 

"The ones you performed at all of the open mics and stuff. I went to all of those for my mate, Zayn. He's into poetry and stuff." So Louis's seen him perform, then. That's why he had said he would be famous. Shit- Louis's seen him perform. Louis's heard the songs that he's written for him. All of the lyrics about blue eyes and brown hair. All of his feelings about the way he laughs and how his eyes crinkle when he has a genuine smile. Louis's heard all of those songs. He starts to panic a little, wondering if Louis could tell that all of the lyrics about blue eyes and soft, brown hair were about him. He's silently glad that he never used Louis's name in any of the songs. "You heard me?"

 

Louis nods and smiles, flipping through the pages. "Yeah. You were my favorite, don't tell Zayn."

 

Harry's heart skips a beat and he can't stop himself from smiling. Louis Tomlinson had just told him he was his favorite. The most beautiful boy in the school is sitting next to him, completely interested in Harry and his songs. Senior year was wild and it had only just begun.

 

"Thank you," Harry says, trying to hide his smile. It fails, though, but Louis's smiling just as bright so neither of them really say anything. "I've seen all of your plays. And all of your games. A footie player that acts, don't see many of those."

 

"A real life High School Musical then, innit?" Louis playfully hits Harry's shoulder and grins. "Aren't you on the school newspaper?"

 

Harry nods, glancing over at the camera perched on top of his bag. "Yeah. And yearbook. I like doing yearbook more, it's mostly taking pictures."

 

"Your shots from the Peter Pan production we put on last Spring were amazing," Louis compliments, handing back the book. "The review was really nice, too. My mum has it on the fridge still."

 

"That's cute," Harry says before he realizes how it sounded. "I mean, the fact that she's so proud of you..." He tries, but Louis just laughs and shrugs. Louis's laugh is one of the most beautiful things Harry has ever heard in hiss life.  _Louis_  was the most beautiful thing he's ever  _seen_  in his life. He had a problem.

 

"You don't talk much, do you?" Louis asks and Harry shakes his head, brushing his hair out of his face and smiling sheepishly. He wasn't good with large groups of people. He wasn't as loud and outgoing as Louis, or his best mate, Niall. He was more in the background, taking pictures and listening to music while everyone socialized at lunch or something. Niall always tried to get him out of his shell, saying that all he needed was to finally get laid and he'd be a social butterfly for the rest of his life. Harry would rather not give up his virginity for the ability to speak to new people.

 

"M'not good with words," He excuses. Louis scoffs, nudging Harry's shoulder as if they've been friends for years. How does Louis have the ability to make anyone feel like they belong? Like they're not the  weird, quiet kid in the back of honors English that refuses to do public speaking? It's like, Louis's social and outgoing personality radiates off of him and shines on anyone within ten feet of him.

 

Louis purses his lips, then shakes his head. "That's a lie. I just read your lyrics, you have a great way with words."

 

"Not when it comes to people," Harry further explains. Louis doesn't say anything, he just grabs the pen from Harry's journal and pulls the sleeve up on Harry's shirt. He writes something on his arm and pulls the sleeve back down, handing back the pen. Harry goes to look at what Louis had written, but the older boy grabs his hand before he had the chance to.

 

"It's my number." Holy shit. "I'm having a party on Friday. First one of the year." Holy  _shit._  


 

"You're inviting me?" Harry asks, disbelief laced in his tone.

 

"Yeah. I like you, Harry Styles," Louis says, winking.  _Holy fucking shit._  Harry blinks a couple of times, wondering if this is real or not. It really doesn't seem that way. Niall won't believe him once he tells him. "See you soon, then?" Louis asks, standing up and readjusting his back pack. Harry nods slowly, glancing over at his notebook quickly, then back up to Louis.

 

"Tommo!" Louis and Harry both look behind him, seeing Louis's best mate, Zayn, waving him over. Louis waves back, gesturing for him to give him a minute, then refocuses his attention on Harry and smiles brightly.

 

"V'gotta go, but text me!" Louis runs off before Harry can respond. "Bye Harry!" He yells as he catches up to Zayn, leaving Harry where he was sat with a dumbfounded expression and his crush's phone number written on his arm.

 

 

* * *

"You're fucking with me," Niall, Harry's best friend since Year One, says when Harry tells him about what had happened the day before with Louis. Harry closes his locker shut, shoving his English book in  his bag and starting to walk off to their Creative Writing class. The blond follows him, throwing an arm over Harry's shoulder.

 

"M'not," Harry says, taking his phone out of his pocket and showing Niall his contacts list. Niall takes the phone from his, going through until he gets to where it says  _Louis Tomlinson_  . "See."

 

"How the fuck did this happen?" Niall asks, going through the contact information and almost dialing Louis's number. Harry snatches the phone out of his hand before he can, sending him a glare and shoving the phone back in it pocket. "What? I needed to see if it was real!"

 

Harry scoffs, shoving Niall's arm off of his shoulder and walking into their classroom. "Why does it matter if it's real or not?"

 

"Because if you have access to  _Louis_  then I have access to  _Zayn._ "

 

"You're straight."

 

"Yeah, but he's  _Zayn fucking Malik._  You don't have to be into dudes to want his dick," Niall points out. Harry pretends to gag, taking out his music notebook along with his journal. Niall reaches over to grab  the journal, but Harry holds it out of his reach. "You never let me read that thing." Niall pouts, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

 

"I never let anyone read it," Harry replies. That statement had been true up until yesterday, when he somehow let Louis read his songs and thoughts that he had never let anyone else read unless he had been performing the songs. But for some reason, when Louis asked to read it, he couldn't bring himself to say no. He doesn't know if it's because he thought he could trust Louis, or if it was because his crush on the lad had blinded him for that moment, but he let him read it anyways.

 

Not that he would let Niall know that.

 

"Yet you'll fuckin' sing them for everyone. Bullshit, bro," Niall complains. Harry rolls his eyes and opens his journal, starting on a new page. He can see Niall trying to peek at the pages from over his shoulder, but he just quickly flips him off and takes out one of his books to block Niall's view. The other boy grunts in annoyance, but sits back again and pretends to be interested in whatever's written on the board.

 

It stays quiet between them and the rest of the class for another minute or so, before the bell rings and one last person is rushing into class. Harry and Niall both look up towards the door, Harry sending Niall a smirk when they see Zayn Malik walking in their direction. Niall's eyes widen when Zayn takes the seat in front of his, which may or may not be the only empty seat in the class. He turns to Harry, seemingly speechless for what Harry thinks is the first time in his life.

 

Harry's smirk only grows when Zayn turns around and faces the both of them, Niall almost turning to dust in his chair. "Harry, right?" Zayn asks, looking at Harry. Harry nods, quickly glancing to Niall before  focusing back on Zayn. "M'Zayn, Louis's best mate. I've seen you at those open mic nights, yeah?"

 

"Yeah, Louis told me that you were in those, too. I usually show up late, so I don't see a lot of the acts before me," Harry says, and wow. He's never talked to someone like Zayn without choking on his words. Niall notices how easily he's making conversation, too, since he's looking at him with a confused expression. He decides to use his newfound social confidence to get Niall what he wants. "This is Niall, my best mate."

 

Zayn looks at Niall and smiles, to which Niall tries (and fails) to smile back casually. Harry would say he looks like a teenage girl meeting her celebrity crush. Which is basically what this is right now. He's going to tease Niall about this moment for the rest of his life.

 

"Hey," Zayn says. "I've seen you at Lou's footie games, I think. Chatting up the cheerleaders."

 

"What? Oh, no, m'just...making conversation with them. M'more into blokes," Niall says not so smoothly. Harry lets out a laugh, then covers his mouth when Niall gives him a look. He'll be speaking to Niall about his fake coming out after school.

 

"Oh, sorry dude. Didn't know." Yeah, neither did Harry. Or Niall, for that matter. "That's cool that you're so open about it, though. Like, you don't give a shit what everyone else would think. That's brave, man."

 

Harry gives the both of them a look of disbelief, then shakes his head and goes back to his journal. Fucking ridiculous, Niall is. Getting  _praise_  for being openly gay while he is actually a closet straight. This is the weirdest and most twisted version of opposite day that Harry has ever seen.

 

"Niall," He finally says once Niall decides to go into how hard it was for him to realize his sexuality. Harry's pretty fucking sure that he's just summarizing the plot of one of those gay and lesbian movies they watched off of Netflix, but whatever. If Niall is so desperate to get laid by a bloke, then let him have his fun, but he is tired of cringing from secondhand embarrassment.

 

"What?" Niall asks, clearly annoyed that Harry was interrupting his soliloquy.

 

"Shut up." Harry's tone obviously states that Niall's making a fool of himself, so the blonde boy just groans quietly and gives Zayn another smile, beginning to mumble to himself about Harry being a dick when Zayn's facing the front.

 

Harry doesn't realize what he's doing until he takes his phone out of his pocket, types the text and clicks send. He blinks a couple of times and stares at his phone, widening his eyes when it finally hits him that he's just texted  _Louis._  


 

_my best friend is pretending to be gay so he can sleep with your best friend_

 

Why is he texting Louis like they've been best friends for years and years. He didn't even tell him who it was or say a simple hi or something. What the hell is he doing.

 

**_who is this ?_ **

 

Harry bites his lip, deciding  _fuck it_  and replying.

 

_harry, sorry_

 

**_ahaha , no worries mate ! which friend of yours is trying to sleep with z ?_ **

 

_niall. the blond and irish one that cheers every time there's pizza for lunch_

 

**_NIALL!!!! that's his name ! Z has been trying to figure it out for at least three years._ **

 

_why??_

 

**_he thinks he's cute. he saw him at one of the footie games with the cheerleaders and has been harassing me about it ever since._ **

 

_i should tell niall_

 

**_you should_ **

 

_im not going to_

 

**_im not going to tell zayn either. better yet , lets fuck with em._ **

 

Harry looks over at Niall, who has his head on the desk and is shamelessly staring at the back of Zayn. This wasn't even about getting laid anymore, Niall was pathetically pining over Zayn Malik. This was  ridiculously adorable and he wasn't sure if he could let Niall make an idiot out of himself for who knows how long.

 

Except Niall catches Harry staring at him and quickly flips him off before grabbing his pencil and doodling things in his notebook. Nevermind that, then. Let the fucking with Niall and Zayn begin.

 

_lets._

 

He smirks to himself when he sends the text, setting his phone at the top of his desk and looking over at Niall's notebook. He's not going to say anything about how he has  _Niall Malik_  drawn everywhere. His best friend was a fucking idiot.

 

 

* * *

The first week of senior year passes by quickly, Harry and Louis texting non stop about their elaborate plan to get Niall and Zayn to  _at least_  hook up. Louis says that it'll definitely happen at his party, they'll both be drunk and if they manage to lock them in a room together, then it'll work easily. Harry's idea of leaving anonymous love notes in their lockers was quickly shut down by Louis, being told that it sounds like something straight off a Disney Channel movie.

 

"Harry!" Harry stops walking, turning around and smiling softly when he sees Louis running up to him. It gains the attention of the other kids in the hallways and Harry is quickly confused before he realizes  that his named was called out by Louis. This is something that has never happened before, hell, he's pretty sure everyone here thinks that he's a new student.

 

Louis catches up to him quickly, slowing down his pace so him and Harry are walking at the same speed. "So I found out that they're in the same art class, too."

 

"Niall is a shit artist," Harry states. "He thinks that drawing a smiley face on his burger with ketchup is art." It's true. He had even taken a picture and posted it on Instagram with all of the art tags he could think of. It had gotten fifteen likes and he claimed that he's going to be the biggest artist to ever exist. That was until Harry took a picture of a banana three days later and got sixteen likes on it, crushing all of Niall's hopes and dreams.

 

Louis laughs, going to wrap his arm around Harry's shoulder, but frowning when he sees that Harry's too tall for him to do it easily. "You're tall."

 

"M'not that tall."

 

"You're taller than me. I don't like that." Harry looks down at Louis, comparing the height difference and shrugging. He was only a few inches taller than Louis. He wasn't really  _that_  tall. Average height, probably. Louis was just a bit smaller than him, was all. It was endearing.

 

Harry instinctively puts an arm over Louis's shoulders, not realizing until it's too late for him to pull back. "I can't help my height," He says. Louis waves him off, leaning into Harry's side and taking his phone out of his hoodie pocket. He taps on the screen a few times, then lifts it for Harry to see. Harry looks at the screen and reads the messages between Zayn and Louis, mostly Zayn going on about how he has classes with Niall and has an excuse to talk to him now. He could honestly say that he never expected Zayn Malik to get this way over  _his_  Niall. It was weird.

 

"He's been texting me about it all week. He has name to a face now."

 

"I thought the saying was a face to a name."

 

"Harold." Did Louis just call him  _Harold?_  He's pretty sure he just called him Harold.

 

"That's not my name, you know," Harry tells him and Louis looks scandalized.

 

"It is now," Louis says simply, going back to his phone. Wow, okay, Louis just renamed him. He's not really sure if he approves, but this is also Louis and he can't really say no. Harold it is, then. "Zayn is gross."

 

"Niall's worse. He's been doodling Niall Malik on every available surface. He's even stopped harassing me to come to cheerleader try-outs with him." Niall's dragged him to cheerleader try-outs every year  since they started high school. He's even tried convincing Harry that they should go and try out for the school footie team just so that they had an excuse to see the cheerleaders all the time. He even bribed Harry with the fact that he'd get to see Louis change in the locker room daily after school. That alone would've been enough for Harry to show up to the try-outs, but he had already been signed up for the school newspaper, yearkbook and choir, so he had to skip out on that one.

 

Louis hums to himself, typing something into his phone before putting it away. "So, anyways, party tonight?"

 

"Yeah yeah, Ni and I will be there," Harry says, nodding. There was no way he'd skip out on being invited to  _Louis's_  party. And besides, if he gets to fuck with Niall a little bit while they're there, then that makes it even better. Killing two birds with one stone, perfect. "What time?"

 

"Eight," Louis tells him. "Get there at eight. That's when Z said he's coming." Harry nods again, letting go of Louis's shoulder when he gets to his Music Theory class. "This is where we part ways, then."

 

"Yep," Harry says. "What class do you have now?"

 

"I've got a free period, actually," Louis tells him, smiling when he does. "I was gonna go bust Zayn out of one of his classes, if you want to come with."

 

Harry thinks about it, which he really shouldn't at all.  _Louis Tomlinson_  was asking him if he wanted to skip class with him and he was standing outside of his next class like an idiot. "Yeah yeah, sure," He says, hoping it comes off casual enough that it'd seem like he's done this before. He hasn't.

 

Louis grins madly, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling him through the slightly empty hallway. They stop outside of the Spanish classroom minutes later, Louis looking through the little window on the door and signaling for Zayn to make an excuse and join him and Harry on their escape. Harry supposes he should text Niall to meet them outside in the school's parking, maybe just to see if Niall would cry, faint, or shit his pants when he sees that he'd be hanging out with Zayn for the next class period or so.

 

That's exactly what he does as the three of them are walking through the school corridors, making sure that they don't get caught by any familiar teachers on their way out to the parking lot.

 

They wait a couple of minutes when they get outside for Niall, Louis and Harry exchanging glances when they spot the looks that Niall and Zayn are giving each other. Harry has to give Zayn props. He never thought one boy would be powerful enough to turn his girl obsessed best mate into a pile of Irish mush. It must've been pretty boy magic or something.

 

"Alright then lads, where are we off to?" Louis asks as they're walking across the school parking lot to his car. Harry shrugs, Niall and Zayn are too wrapped up on a conversation about their Art teacher, so Louis just rolls his eyes and props an elbow on Harry's shoulder while they listen to the other pair chatter to themselves.

 

"How long have we got?" Harry asks him. Louis shrugs and stops at his car, opening the door and sliding into the passenger seat.

 

"Harry's got shot gun," He calls, giving Zayn a pointed look before gesturing for Harry to sit in the front passenger seat. Harry's breathing goes a little off-steady, but he quickly regains his cool when he senses Niall's inner freak out when he realizes he's going to be sat in the back with Zayn. Harry was a little pathetic, but he wasn't as pathetic as Niall was. "I say we go to the beach then, yeah? Nothing else to do, really," Louis suggests. Harry nods in agreement while Zayn and Niall make some type of noise that they're both going to take as a yes.

 

Louis turns up the music on the radio as they drive, hoping to drown out the sounds of Niall and Zayn being completely oblivious to everything so that him and Harry don't die of second hand embarrassment. Harry leans back in his seat, softly singing along to the newest song from some pop boy band that he's heard Gemma play around the house. Louis glances at him every few seconds, making him feel more self conscious about his singing, so he lowers his voice a bit.

 

"You're a great singer, you know," Louis says a few seconds after the song has finished playing. "How come you've never tried out for any musicals?"

 

"Can't act," Harry answers simply. "Or dance." Louis laughs at that.

 

"I suppose that ruins a bit of it, doesn't it?"

 

"Indeed it does. There goes my dream of becoming a Broadway Star," Harry clicks his tongue and frowns, to which Louis tales a hand off the wheel and shoves his shoulder. "How come you tried Theatre, then? An athlete like you could be big, I think."

 

Louis rolls his eyes, turning down the radio when a song he doesn't like comes on. "M'not that great, to be completely honest."

 

"That's a lie. I've been to all of your games, there wasn't a single one where you didn't score the winning goal." It's a fact, Harry knows. He had to write an article on it for the school newspaper. He almost got to interview Louis for it, too, but he had never gotten the chance to. He was gutted about it for at least a full week before Niall told him to shut the fuck up because he was being pathetic. Who's pathetic now, hm?

 

"You flatter me, Harold," Louis says, smiling. Harry grins, leaning his head against the car window and humming softly to the radio. "So, tell me about yourself. We've got about three years worth of friendship we need to catch up on, I think."

 

Three years worth of friendship. So this was a  _thing_  apparently. Him and Louis were going to be  _friends_  not just partners in crime to get their best mates together. Now this really feels like one of those stupid movies on Disney Channel.

 

 

* * *

"This is what Senior year is really about, Harold," Louis says as they're walking along the water. "Skipping class and hanging out at the beach all day, yeah?"

 

"You're not even skipping," Harry replies, gently shoving Louis's shoulder. "You've got this period free, anyways."

 

"Never mind that," Louis says, waving him off and laughing. "It's so quiet since everyone else decided to stay in class. How boring they are."

 

"Heyyyy," Harry drawls out. "I used to be one of those boring people."

 

"Really?" Louis asks, raising an eyebrow. Harry nods, grinning sheepishly and looking down. He hadn't really meant to admit that, but Louis's got this weird effect on him. It's like he does the opposite of everything he wants to do when he's around him. First the notebook, then the whole Harold thing (did he really want to say no to that, though?) and now admitting things he didn't mean to admit. It's both a  blessing and a curse, but he won't complain.

 

"What? I'm a very quiet person." Harry shrugs, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Louis purses his lips.

 

"You seemed a bit more reckless, I guess," He says. "Must be the curls."

 

"Must be," Harry agrees, nodding and smiling. Louis makes a humming noise and pokes the corner of Harry's mouth.

 

"Those dimples, too. Very rebellious looking," He tells him, crossing his arms and grinning like mad. Harry raises an eyebrow, throwing an arm over Louis's shoulder and shaking his head. Him, rebellious.  Sure. Skipping class was the most wild thing he's done since he accidentally cut Gemma's hair in her sleep when he was seven. Or maybe the time he accidentally opened his neighbors gate so the dog  would get loose (if it makes it any better, it did end up coming back). It wasn't his fault it wouldn't shut up when he was trying to watch TV.

 

It stays silent between them for a few minutes, only the sounds of the waves and Niall and Zayn laughing farther ahead of them. It's not an awkward silence, though. More of those comfortable silences where you're just enjoying your surroundings and the person you're with at the moment.

 

"Question," Louis says suddenly. Harry looks over at him, chewing on his lip and waiting for Louis to continue speaking. "Have you got a girlfriend?"

 

Harry almost laughs out loud at that one. The only relationship he's been in was a girl in Year Seven when he was still trying to figure out if he liked girls or not. The answer to that question had be a very clear no.

 

"Nope," He answers as casually as possible.

 

"Boyfriend?"

 

"No, not yet. Never really been in a proper relationship."

 

"Oh."

 

There's a brief silence before Harry speaks up. "How about you?" Come to think of it, Harry didn't actually know what Louis's sexuality was. He had heard rumors that he was gay, but then he's also heard that he's had girlfriends, so he didn't know which one to believe.

 

"No, no boyfriend." It was the former, meaning he had a slight chance. Not that he was Louis's type or anything, probably, but there was that one percent possibility that maybe him and Louis could be something more than friends one day. "There's one guy at school, though. I like him a little bit."

 

Harry frowns for a minute, but smiles again before Louis can notice. "Really? Who?"

 

"You don't know them. They're not really...Noticed. They should be, though," Louis says, leaning his head onto Harry's shoulder. "Have you got an eye on someone?"

 

  
_You_ , Harry thinks. "Yeah, I do actually." He settles for that instead, hoping Louis might just accept the answer and move onto a different subject without questioning Harry more on it. Apparently, he doesn't  know Louis well enough to make that assumption.

 

"Who is it? Someone at our school?"

 

"Yeah. He's never really noticed me before," Harry says, hoping he's not being too obvious. "Or well, not before this year, at least."

 

Louis hums, stopping them where they're standing. "Be bold, then. Make him notice you. S'what I do- Or did. I don't know. I've been bold for three years and he hasn't done a thing, yet. Maybe a little my fault, though. He's quiet and I'm loud, I should've gone up to him earlier."

 

"There's always now."

 

"That's what I'm doing, Curly," Louis says, grinning like mad and toeing off his Vans. He lifts off his t-shirt and starts unbuttoning his jeans before Harry raises an eyebrow and stops him. "What?" Louis asks when he looks up at him.

 

"What are you doing?" Harry asks. Not that he's complaining, he's all for a Louis Tomlinson strip show, but this was kind of in the middle of the beach and even though it was during the school day, there were a few other people around and would most likely see Louis getting naked.

 

"Going for a swim, 'course," Louis answers like it's the most obvious question in the universe. Which, now that Harry remembers that they're a couple of feet away from the ocean, it kind of is obvious. He's such a dumbass around cute boys that are half naked next to him. He should really do something about that, or whatever. "C'mon, do it with me."

 

Harry blinks a couple of times, not sure how to respond to that one. Yeah, he was probably the first person to walk around his house naked, even Niall's house sometimes, but they were on the  _beach_  and he can't just strip down into his underwear and go into the water like Louis was doing. He's doesn't have the confidence for that, not like Louis does. And as soon as he remembers that  _Louis_  is in front of him, with his shirt off and only his jeans on, he looks down briefly at Louis's body and  _fuck this._  Louis has tattoos on the inside of his arm that Harry's never seen before because Louis's usually got a hoodie on or long sleeves. But wow, they're there and he has a few and he's so fucking hot that Harry's not sure how he's going to force himself to look back up.

 

He looks at the tattoos a little longer, and he guesses that Louis's realized what he's looking at because he holds out his arm so Harry can see them better. "I got them as soon as I turned eighteen," Louis says, looking down at them and smiling.

 

"Eighteen?" Harry questions, because he's never really known Louis's age and only his birthday (Christmas Eve because Louis was a fucking  _gift_  to the world) and he just assumed he was seventeen like all the rest of them.

 

"I got held back a year because I fucked off all my classes freshman year," Louis says, shrugging. Harry keeps his eyes trained on the tattoos, nodding slowly and trying to decide which one was his favorite. There were eight of them and he pretty much loves them all because they're all on Louis and Louis got them all for a reason, right?

 

"Oh, I didn't know that." All he knew was that there was a cute, loud and funny boy in his English class during his first year and he's been smitten with him ever since. Well maybe that was a little bit of a lie. He was probably even more smitten after watching Louis in one of the school musicals. It had been Grease and he still has the program and ticket for it in a shoebox under his bed.

 

Niall said it was creepy, but Harry thought of it as sentimental. Granted, him and Louis weren't dating and there was no reason for him to be sentimental, but it's the thought that counts, right? Besides, it's  not like that's the only thing in that box. There's other stuff, too. Like movie ticket stubs and pictures of all of the trips that his and Niall's families had taken together during the summers. It was just a really sentimental box and Louis happened to be apart of it.

 

"You gonna go swimming or not? Louis asks, glancing around and making sure no one else was around before pulling down his jeans and underwear. Harry's eyes widen for a split second before he regains his cool and looks away from Louis. But he can't really help it if he stares at Louis's bum when he's going into the water.

 

He uses all the willpower he has left in his body to force himself not to get hard at the sight of Louis. This extremely hot guy was in the water,  _naked_ , and he was just expected to get undressed and dive right in without any repercussions? Who did the world think he was? He was seventeen, he still laughed whenever the answer to his math problems was  _sixty nine_.

 

"Harry!" Louis calls, breaking Harry out of his train of thought. He glances up at Louis, who only has the upper half of his body exposed out of the water. Seeing Louis Tomlinson wet right in front of him was the last thing Harry thought he'd be doing on a Friday afternoon. "You're just gonna make me look like an idiot?"

 

Harry briefly glances in the direction that Zayn and Niall were walking in, only to find them way farther down than they had been only minutes ago. Niall was just going to leave him here with Louis, apparently. Lovely, every man for himself.

 

He sighs, tugging off his headscarf and pulling his t-shirt off, leaving them to the side. He's not sure how he feels about getting naked in front of Louis, but the other lad did it so he might as well do it, too. His mum always told him he should be a leader, but how could he do that when Louis was walking around all confident and making everyone want to do what he wants them to do. So yeah, Harry can be a leader, but can anyone really be anything other than a follower when it comes to Louis Tomlinson?

 

He sighs again, taking his shoes off, unbuttoning his jeans and pulling them down, quickly doing the same with his underwear and getting into the water before anyone else can see something they shouldn't be seeing. He swims out to where Louis is, smiling softly at the older boy.

 

Louis smiles back, pointing to something behind Harry and waiting til he turns around to splash him. Harry lifts his hands to cover his face, but there's more water then he can repel and his hair ends up soaking. Louis laughs, swimming away from Harry before he can retaliate.

 

"That's not what I signed up for, Tomlinson," Harry yells, laughing and going after him. Unfortunately, Louis's small and quick and can swim faster than Harry can, making it a few minutes before Harry finally reaches him and splashes him from behind. Louis screams unnecessarily loudly, turning around and pushing water towards Harry so he can make his escape. Harry shakes his hair out of his face,  grabbing Louis's hand and pulling him back.

 

They're close together when Louis turns around, close enough that Harry could easily lean down and kiss him, but doesn't do that. Instead, he pulls them both underwater and comes up before Louis, laughing loudly when the other boy comes up with a shocked expression.

 

"Alright then, Styles. Playing dirty, I see," Louis says, pushing his hair out of his face and crossing his arms. He smirks, then quickly goes underwater before Harry can do or say anything. It's calm for a minute before Harry feels a hand wrap around his ankle and pull him down

 

He comes back up coughing, pushing back his hair and rolling his eyes at a laughing Louis. "You're a menace," Harry says, but there's a fond smile on his face and he's glad that he's soaking and his hair  is all over the place, because Louis would probably be able to tell that he was blushing.

 

"You enjoy it. Otherwise you wouldn't have come in," Louis says and yeah, he's kinda got him there. To be completely honest, Harry would probably jump off of a bridge if Louis asked him to, but he wouldn't get into that right now. "We should get out before Zayn and Niall come back and assume things." Louis sticks his tongue out at Harry and swims back towards where their clothes are, quickly getting dressed without anyone noticing. He supposes being on the school's footie team for five years straight gets you prepared for that sort of thing.

 

Harry follows him out the water, getting dressed as well. He didn't do it quite as quickly, but it was fast enough for him. They continue walking along the beach after that, in the direction where Louis had parked the car.

 

"So," Louis says when they're sitting in the car, waiting for Zayn and Niall to get back to them. For all they know, the two may have hidden somewhere and made out while Louis and Harry were swimming. Which would be great, but that would kind of ruin the party plan that him and Louis had planned for that night. "How come you're so quiet? Wait, no- I didn't mean to say it like that."

 

"Um," Harry mumbles, not sure how to answer from there. "I just am? Like, I dunno. Socializing isn't my thing. Can't really explain it." That makes some sense, right? He just couldn't be...outgoing like Louis was. Only when it came to him and his music, but anything besides that, he was a lost cause.

 

"Zayn was like that, you know," Louis says, nudging Harry's shoulder. "Then we became friends during primary school and I brought him out of his shell. It took a little bit, a lot of parties and practical jokes,  but then he just started being more and more open and that was it. We were partners in crime."

 

"Gonna work your magic on me, then?" Harry asks, raising an eyebrow and wow, that came off a lot more flirty than he had meant it to. Louis doesn't notice, though, because he just chuckles and shrugs.

 

"Maybe, I dunno. Seems to work on everyone I meet." Louis grins, turning the radio up a little bit and leaning back in his seat. He sighs drumming his fingers on his thigh and looking out of his window. "They're taking forever," He says, opening the car door and stepping out. Harry bites his lip and does the same, following Louis in the direction he was walking in. "Should we get ice cream and rub it in their faces when they finally decide to show their faces? Five bucks says that they were making out on the sand somewhere."

 

Harry laughs, swinging an arm around Louis's shoulder and shrugging. "Maybe, maybe not. Niall might've talked him to death."

 

"Doubt it, Zayn's been friends with me for years. He's used to excessive amounts of talking." Louis sticks out his tongue and leads Harry into the ice cream shop, standing in front of the flavors and looks down at them. "Wanna share one? We can get like, four scoops or summat."

 

"Depends, what flavors?" Harry asks, glancing at them.

 

Louis shrugs, pointing at the bin of mint chocolate chip and grinning like a kid on Christmas Day. Harry stares at him for a few seconds before looking back down at the flavors. "I always get that one and Zayn picks his favorite flavor. So two of mint chocolate chip and two of cookie dough or whatever the hell his new favorite flavor is."

 

"Cookies and Cream?" Harry suggests, seeing that they don't have his favorite anyways so he might as well. Louis nods, ordering two scoops of each and taking his wallet out of his pocket. Harry frowns,  taking his out his own and handing Louis a five for his two scoops. Louis ignores it, pushing Harry's hand away and paying for the both of theirs. "You didn't have to pay for mine."

 

"What, and be a shitty date?" Louis teases, grabbing their bowl and a couple of spoons. "No thanks, Styles. You're not ruining my reputation." He winks and laughs, handing Harry a spoon.

 

"Oh, so this is a date now?" Harry grins and takes some of the ice cream on the spoon, opening the door for Louis and following Louis out. He's not counting the amount of times he's mentally saying "keep cool, Styles, keep cool". A date, Louis has called this a date. He was joking, yeah, but this is probably the closest he'll ever get to a date with Louis, so he'll take it. "Where are my flowers?"

 

Louis scoffs. "What a demanding date, you are." He flicks his fringe and takes a spoonful of his ice cream, sneaking a bit of Harry's on his spoon as well. Harry rolls his eyes and leads them back to the car, him and Louis both getting in and turning the radio back on. He hums along to the radio, taking bits of ice cream every few seconds and keeping his gaze anywhere except for on Louis. They're sat in a comfortable silence for what seems like a lifetime before Zayn and Niall show up again and slide into the back seat.

 

Louis and Harry exchange a glance, then simultaneously turn around to inspect Zayn and Niall's faces. Their hair is the same way it was when they first got there, faces aren't flushed, lips seem mostly normal, which means all was boring with them and the party plan remains intact. They both look back at each other before turning back around and shaking their heads.

 

"Where did you two go off to, then?" Louis asks, turning the key in the ignition and pulling out of the parking lot. Zayn and Niall just give each other a look and shrug at the same time. Louis rolls his eyes, smirking over at Harry while the younger boy chuckles to himself. "Well H and I had a great time skinny dipping, didn't we, Harold?"

 

Harry looks in the rear view mirror and smirks when he sees Niall looking with wide eyes. He's probably just realized there was a chance to see Zayn's dick and completely missed out on it. That's what he gets for just abandoning Harry all alone with a naked Louis.

 

He faintly hears Niall mumble something under his breath, but he can't quite make out what it is. Zayn laughs, though, so he goes ahead and assumes it's something about him and Louis.

 

"You got fuckin' ice cream, too?" Niall complains, grabbing the bowl from the front and snatching Harry and Louis's spoons. Louis opens his mouth to protest, but Zayn quickly beats him to it.

 

"Sharing is caring!" He says in a slightly higher pitched voice, which judging my Louis's grimace, is supposed to sound like him. "Oh sick, you got cookies and cream. My favorite," He adds, taking in a spoonful before reaching forward and patting Louis's arm. Louis smacks his hand away and turns the radio up, shaking his head and glancing up at the rear view mirror quickly before putting his eyes back on the road.

 

"It was Rocky Road last week," Louis comments. Zayn shrugs and takes another spoonful.

 

"I changed my mind."

 

Louis scoffs at that and looks over at Harry with disbelief written all over his face. "See what I have to deal with? See?" Harry laughs and leans his head back on the seat, singing along to the radio and smiling softly when he hears Louis singing him along with him. He turns around when he sees Niall tap his shoulder, rolling his eyes when the Irish boy winks at him. He turns back around and continues singing along, ignoring the continuous buzzes on his phone that are no doubt messages from Niall. He hasn't got time for Niall's stupidity at the moment, especially when he knows the messages are just  going to be sexual innuendo about his and Louis's skinny dipping session earlier. He laughs to himself and sighs. He knows exactly what Louis has to deal with.

 

 

* * *

Harry realizes the minute that Niall shows up to get ready for Louis's party, that inviting him over in the first place was probably the worst decision he has ever made.

 

"So you're telling me that you got Louis Tomlinson naked right in front of you and you didn't end up fucking on the beach?" Niall asks while he's lounging on Harry's bed, messing around on his phone and watching Harry rummage around in his closet. "Dude, you had the opportunity to lose your virginity to Louis fucking Tomlinson, and you passed it up."

 

Harry rolls his eyes and grabs a shirt from his closet, tossing it on the bed besides Niall with the other three that he's chosen. "I'd rather my first time wasn't in the ocean, Niall." Which is half a truth and half a lie. He really didn't want his first time in the ocean, but when it came to Louis, it could've been behind a dumpster and it still would've been special to him. Hell, Louis could be blindfolded while they did it and he'd still go on to Niall about how beautiful his eyes looked when it happened. He was so gone for Louis, it was so extremely pathetic.

 

"Bro, sex on a beach. Romance 101 right there." He gives Niall a look of what could be either exasperation, annoyance or maybe a mix of both, he's not really sure anymore. Niall sits up and narrows his eyes at him. "Excuse me, which of us lost their v-card at summer camp two years ago? I believe that would be me."

 

"Of course, you get the romance crown for awkwardly fucking a girl in a broom closet," Harry mutters. Niall frowns and tosses a pillow at him, grabbing the shirts Harry has on the bed and looking through all of them. "Which one?"

 

Niall tosses him the black button up and lays back down. "Are you gonna wear that stupid hat? Please don't wear the stupid hat."

 

"It's not stupid," Harry defends, glancing over at where it was sat on his desk. Niall glances at him in disbelief and gets of the bed, going over to the desk and grabbing the hat. He looks at it with a concentrated face for a few moments before putting it back down and looking up at Harry.

 

"I've done my research," He says. "You're right, it's not a stupid hat."

 

Harry grins victoriously and pulls off his t-shirt, changing into the shirt Niall gave him to wear. "Told you--"

 

"It's a  _really_  fuckin' stupid hat." Harry scoffs, flipping off Niall before doing up all but three buttons on his shirt. "That hat is the reason you haven't gotten laid," Niall says, tossing the hat onto the bed and shaking his head. "That hat holds your virginity."

 

"Niall, please shut up. Your stupidity is making me dumber by the second," Harry says, pulling on a pair of skinny jeans and sitting down on his bed. He really wants to know how he ended up with Niall as his best friend out of everyone. He should've picked Zayn. Zayn seemed like a nice best friend, wouldn't question his fashion choices and decide that sex was the answer to all of his problems. Maybe he can make a plan to steal Zayn from Louis some point this year. They can do like, a best friend swap or something. Yeah, that'd work.

 

"This is what I get for helping you," Niall says, shaking his head and sitting back down on the bed. He makes little noises when Harry goes to put the hat on, making a farting noise when it's finally on. That  earns a nice smack on the head. "Oi, watch that hand, Styles."

 

Harry sticks his tongue out at him and pulls on his boots, standing up and sliding his phone into his back pocket. "Are you driving tonight, or am I?"

 

"Irish."

 

"You can't use that excuse every time," Harry says. Niall waves him off and grins, grabbing his arm and pulling him out the room and downstairs. "Literally, you use that excuse  _every time._  " It's true. When they got their fake IDs last year and started sneaking into clubs and bars, Niall always made Harry the designated driver because  _"I'm Irish, so it's basically law for me to drink"_  . Harry can't remember one time where he actually went to a bar with Niall and had more than one drink.

 

Niall shrugs, waving at Gemma, who's sat on the sofa flipping through a magazine and watching TV. Gemma immediately flips him off without even batting an eyelash and Niall grins, throwing an arm over Harry's shoulders as they walk outside to the car. "Your sister wants me," He says once him and Harry get to the car. "Did you see the way she looked at me?" Harry's pretty sure she didn't look at him at all, but he'll let Niall have his little fantasy. He shakes his head and sighs, getting into his car and pulling out of the driveway after Niall gets in.

 

"I should break the news to her that I like blokes, now. D'ya reckon she'll beg for me?"

 

Harry snorts. "No." He really wants to know how Niall finds it so easy to think that every person he walks past is in love with him. Is that an Irish thing or is that just a special thing that Niall has in his personality? He sure is really confident for someone that's constantly getting rejected by girls whenever he asks them out. "She might throw a party." He's thought that Gemma's been in love with him since they were seven and she was eleven and yelling at Niall to stop trying to kiss her. It's been a love hate relationship between them since then. More hate on Gemma's part and more love on Niall's.

 

"Dick," Niall mumbles, shoving Harry's shoulder lightly.

 

"Whatever," Harry says, grinning. "So have you decided you're gay now or is this an act to get into Zayn's bed?" Last time he checked, Niall was still drooling over the dance team every time they walked past the two of them in the hallway. And also the girls volleyball team. Not to mention how he still planned on dragging Harry to cheerleader tryouts the next week. He knows that there's no protocol to being gay or anything, but he's pretty sure that it includes to attracted to the same sex. Even just a little bit.

 

"You and I both know the answer to that. I like girls. And I like Zayn," Niall answer simply. Harry takes that for an answer and decides not to press it, driving the rest of the way to Louis's place in silence.

 

 

* * *

The thing is, Harry's never really been to a party like this before. He's been to like, lame birthday parties and stuff like that, but a massive party like this with drinks and and a lot of people and extremely loud music. He's never experienced one of those before. He feels slightly out of place, but maybe that's because Niall abandoned him fifteen minutes into the party to go find where the drinks were. Whatever, he doesn't need Niall to socialize. He can be outgoing and flirty Harry for a couple of hours. If he finds Louis, he can be even louder and flirty without the liquid courage even faster.

 

He maneuvers his way through the crowd of people, making sure not to spill his soda on anyone and trying to see if he can spot the shorter boy anywhere. He's about ready to give up and try it all on his own before a hand pulls on his arm and takes him away from the large group of people. He glances at the person pulling him and smiles when he sees that it's Louis, finally managing to keep up with his walking speed and stopping when Louis has them both outside.

 

"Zayn's late," Louis says, crossing his arms and seeming annoyed. "Is Niall here?"

 

Harry nods quickly, not wanting to know the result of pissing off an already annoyed Louis Tomlinson. Minor annoyed Louis already seems scary, he'd rather not make it any worse.

 

There's a crash from the kitchen, followed by a roar of laughter and yelling. He looks back at Louis, who just shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "Ignore that. Happens every time," Louis tells him. Harry nods quickly, enjoying the somewhat quietness of being outside and alone with just Louis. "Anyways, Zayn's gonna be here an hour late because he had to work on something for his art class, or whatever."

 

"So, what do we do?" Harry asks, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and raising an eyebrow. Louis sighs, shrugging his shoulders and sitting down on the grass. "You're not going back inside."

 

"No, everyone's annoying," Louis complains, laying back and gesturing for Harry to do the same. Harry does as told, laying beside Louis and looking up at the sky. It's silent between them, only the faint sound of the party inside being heard. This is what he enjoys. He enjoys quiet time, looking up at the stars without having a bunch of people too close to him. He enjoys being able to have a nice, quiet moment like this with Louis instead of following Niall around inside and having to be his babysitter. He likes having someone that doesn't force him into these types of social situations, being utterly content  with sitting outside in the silence and the beauty of the night sky.

 

"I've thrown this same party every year for the past four years. This one and the one at the end of the school year. Always the same shit going on," Louis mumbles, aimlessly picking at the grass. "You've never been to one, have you?" He smiles softly when Harry shakes his head. "I shouldn't be taking up all your time, then," He says, standing up and holding his hand out for Harry to grab. Harry stares at it  for a minute, grabbing it and pulling Louis back down on the grass.

 

"M'not much of a party person, really," Harry says, shrugging and looking back up at the sky. He can feel Louis's eyes burning into his skin, probably judging him for not being a social person, or maybe for  not wanting to enjoy one of the few high school experiences he has. He half expects Louis to get back up and go back into the party on his own, but a few minutes of silence goes by and Louis's still laying  beside him.

 

Harry's curiosity gets the best of him and he turns his head, making eye contact with Louis and smiling softly in reassurance. Louis purses his lips, his brows furrowed and seeming deep in thought.

 

"What do you do then? For fun, I mean," Louis asks. Harry shrugs, standing up and holding his hand out for Louis. The older boy grabs his hand, pulling himself up and following Harry when he starts to walk back inside the party. "Thought you didn't do parties?" Louis yells over the music, reaching forward and sliding his hand in Harry's so he doesn't lose him.

 

Harry doesn't reply, continuing until they're outside in the front, walking away from the party and down the street instead. "Usually if I'm not with Niall, I'll just go out and walk. listen to music, think of song lyrics, take pictures. Whatever I wanna do. Quiet, no distractions and I'm alone."

 

"But you've brought me along," Louis points out, shoving his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and trying to keep up with Harry. Curse his longer legs. "Can't be all that fun, being alone."

 

"Sometimes it isn't," Harry says, looking down. He shrugs and takes out his phone, playing a song softly and putting his phone back in his pocket. "But it's calm, you know? There's something about being alone with your thoughts that's peaceful." Louis doesn't respond and for a minute he's worried that he's too boring for him, or maybe Louis thinks he's weird and strange and doesn't want anything to do with him anymore. But instead, Louis walks closer to Harry, their arms just barely touching as they walk alone in the dark of the night.

 

"I get it," Louis says after a few minutes and another song begins to play from Harry's phone. Harry looks over at him, but Louis's staring straight ahead, seeming deep in thought while the music plays. "I get like that when I have to memorize lines. Don't want anyone around me while I'm reading through. Needs to be quiet to I can focus on what I need and want to."

 

Harry nods slowly, looking back down and smiling softly. "Yeah. Like that."

 

They walk in silence for another few minutes, only the sound of the music from Harry's phone filling the quiet air between them. It reminds Harry of when they skipped class to go to the beach, neither of them speaking to each other, but still comfortable in each other's presence. Harry's never been able to feel that way around someone else, his thoughts always getting to him and wondering if he should say something first or wait until the other person has something to say. It's not like that with Louis, though. He doesn't feel like he needs to force himself to be out there or make himself uncomfortable just to not seem like a complete moron. Louis's different.

 

Louis's phone buzzes after ten minutes of walking and he slips it out of his pocket, checking the message and sighing in annoyance. "Zayn can't make it tonight. Babysitting."

 

"Shit, so what now?" Harry asks, watching Louis's hands as he types a reply to Zayn and shoves the phone back in his pocket with a little too much force. "Do we plan something else?"

 

The older boy nods. "Zayn's dragging me to an art show next week. Think you can bring Niall?"

 

Harry nods, then stops walking. "  _Niall._  He was telling me about that. Think he was planning on dragging me along."

 

Louis smiles and nods, walking right alongside Harry again. "Perfect, then."

* * *

 

 

The art show rolls around eventually and as Harry assumed, Niall drags him to the art museum to see a bunch of art pieces neither of them know nor understand. And Niall called him pathetic for his crush on Louis. He's pretty sure this has gone past Niall just wanting to get in bed with him.

 

"Niall, is this really necessary?" Harry asks him, half asleep. Niall just pulls on his arm, ignoring his complaining and dragging him around until Harry spots Louis by one of the paintings. "Over there," Harry says, pointing to where Louis is. Niall pulls him over in that direction, frowning when they get to Louis and Zayn isn't there.

 

"Where's Zayn," Niall demands, glancing around and crossing his arms. Harry rolls his eyes and stands beside Louis, shrugging and glancing over at Louis with a subtle grin.

 

"Check the toilets," Louis tells him, pointing over in their direction. Niall sighs, turning around and making his way to the bathroom. "There's a small problem," Louis says, turning to Harry, who raises an eyebrow. Louis points over in the opposite direction of where he sent Niall and Harry looks over, seeing Zayn talking and smiling with a blonde girl. It takes Harry a few minutes, but he realizes what's going on and widens his eyes, staring back at Louis.

 

"Is he  _flirting_  with her?" Harry asks and Louis bites his lip and nods slowly. "I thought he liked Niall!"

 

"Yeah, well, he thinks Niall's not into him," Louis replies. Harry frowns, crossing his arms. "I tried to convince him that's not the case, but he won't listen to me!"

 

Harry opens his mouth to speak, but is distracted when he sees Niall coming back over to them, looking both annoyed and confused. "Shit, Niall- Um, I'll get rid of her, you distract Niall," He says, patting Louis on the shoulder and smiling weakly before walking off over to Zayn and the girl he was flirting with.

 

It's not until he gets over there that he realizes he has absolutely no idea what he's gonna do or say. He's never really been good at confrontation and this exactly what this was. He doesn't like the thought  of it, but right now he's getting closer to Zayn and the girl and he's got about zero seconds to think of something quickly.

 

"Zayn- Hey mate, Louis needs to talk to you," Harry says quickly, pointing over to where Louis and Niall were standing. Zayn looks between the girl and Harry, letting out a sigh and walking towards Louis and Niall. Harry sighs in relief, ready to walk back when he realizes he still has to find a way to stop flirting with this girl  _period._  He looks over at her nervously, biting his lip and darting his eyes over the room. His gaze lands on a brown haired girl that staring over at the two of them, mostly on the blonde girl. He raises an eyebrow, turning back to the girl.

 

"What's your name?" He asks, drumming his fingers against his thigh to ease his nerves. He's really not used to this.

 

"Perrie," She says, smiling softly and looking over in the direction Harry had been looking. He looks back, seeing that the other girl had looked away and was biting her lip.

 

"I think she's into you," He tells her, nodding in the other girl's direction and smiling. He'll just set her up with someone else, then. He stares at the other girl for a bit longer and recognizes her from his music class. "Her name is Jade. She's really into music."

 

Perrie bites her lip and nods, smiling again and making her way over to Jade. Harry silently high fives himself, walking back to Louis, Zayn and Niall. Louis gives him a look, but Harry gives him a smiles and rest a hand on his shoulder. Louis nods slowly, focusing his attention back on Zayn.

 

"Are we done here yet?" Louis asks, crossing his arms. Zayn shakes his head and frowns.

 

"We've got so much more to look at!" Zayn exclaims, gesturing to all of the art around them. Louis sighs in exasperation, shaking his head and grabbing Harry's arm. Harry looks down at Louis's hands, furrowing his brows and looking up at Niall, who just shrugs.

 

"Niall can stay with you, Harry and I are leaving," Louis states, turning around and pulling Harry away. Okay? "Bye Z, bye Niall." He pulls Harry until they're outside the museum, rolling his eyes and leading  them both to where he parked his car. "Did Niall drive or you?"

 

"Niall," Harry says, following Louis. "Why?"

 

"So I can leave without leaving Zayn stranded," Louis says, grinning and opening his car door. Harry shakes his head and smiles, opening the passenger door and sliding in with Louis. "Where should we go, then?" He asks. Harry shrugs, instinctively turning the radio on once Louis starts driving without realizing it. He's about to turn it back off, but Louis reaches his hand out and stops him. "It's fine, Harry," He tells him, giving a smile.

 

Harry nods, taking his hand back and leaning his head against the window. "I dunno where we should go," He says, drumming his fingers on his thighs and biting his lip. This seems to happen to with them a lot nowadays. Leaving their best friends stranded somewhere and running off with each other for no exact reason. He's not sure how or why this started happening, but he won't ruin it by complaining.

 

"Could just hang out at my place, if you want," Louis suggests. Harry thinks his heart stopped beating for a minute. Him and Louis alone at his place for who knows how long. "My sisters might be there, but they'll stay out of the way." Okay, so maybe not  _alone_ , but close enough to it. "I promise my room's clean this time." Harry laughs and nods, humming along to the radio and stooping the drumming of his fingers. He doesn't feel as nervous as he should, especially seeing as the only time he was at Louis's was during the party. And even then, they didn't really stay at Louis's.

 

"Yeah, that sounds cool," Harry says, leaning his head back on the seat and smiling lazily. He sings a bit louder, looking over at Louis when the older boy joins in. He quickly gets comfortable, turning the radio up and singing along to it loudly with Louis. He's pretty sure he's maybe off key and sounds like shit, but he's having fun and Louis won't stop laughing or smiling, so it's worth making an idiot out of himself.

 

 

* * *

"That's cheating!" Harry exclaims when Louis leans over and tries to cover his eyes with his hand. Louis laughs, attempting to use his controller with one hand and keeping one hand in front of Harry's face. Harry leans away, messing around with his controller and shoving Louis's hand away. "Louisssss," He drawls, laughing and trying to keep his eyes on the screen.

 

"You're beating me!" Louis says back, grinning and pulling his hand away when he scores another goal. "Ha!"

 

"Cheater!"

 

"It's strategy!" Louis retorts, throwing his controller to the side and smiling. Harry rolls his eyes and does the same, laying his head back and pursing his lips at Louis. "What should we do now, then?"

 

Harry shrugs and runs a hand through his hair. "Dunno, do you think Zayn and Niall are making out yet?" He asks, grabbing his phone and looking to see if he has anything from Niall. Nothing. Maybe they're too busy making out to tell either Louis or Harry about it. "Nothing from Niall," He says, putting his phone away and looking over at Louis. Louis takes his phone out of his pocket and checks his messages.

 

"Nothing from Z," He says, sighing. Harry hears footsteps coming down the stairs and turns around, looking over and seeing a younger girl coming downstairs. Probably one of Louis's sisters. Louis glances over and sticks his tongue out, smiling. "Hey Lotts. This is Harry."

 

The girl looks up from her phone and sticks her tongue back out at Louis, then waves and smiles quickly at Harry. Harry smiles and waves back. "Hey," He says, quickly turning back to Louis. "How many sisters do you have?" He asks.

 

"Five- Well, six if you count my sister Georgia. But yeah, five," Louis replies, smiling softly. "My mum just had twins. I finally have a brother." He grins like a kid on Christmas day, grabbing his phone and showing Harry the pictures he has of his youngest brother and sister. Harry looks at the photos, smiling and fonding over how adorable Louis was with his siblings. He looks over at Louis and smiles at how soft his face looks as they look through the pictures. "Mum says he looks like me when I was a baby."

 

"Except he’s cuter," Lottie says from the kitchen, coming out into the living room with a bowl of cereal and sitting beside Louis. "Show him your baby pictures," She says, reaching for Louis's phone. He frowns, holding it away from her and shaking his head. "Isn't that was boyfriends do?" Louis widens his eyes are her, pushing her away and shaking his head furiously.

 

"We're not- No, we're friends, Lottie," He stutters, his cheeks blushing red. Harry's face quickly falls, biting his lip and hoping he won't give himself away. They were just friends trying to get their best friends together. That's all they were, because Louis could have literally anyone in school and there's no way he would ever go for socially awkward Harry. "Go away."

 

She looks at them skeptically before standing up and rolling her eyes. She leans down beside Harry and whispers something to him. "He likes you." He looks at her in confusion and shocks, glancing back  over at Louis when she makes her way back upstairs. Louis looks between her and Harry, narrowing his eyes at Harry and frowning.

 

"What'd she say to you?" He asks, biting on his bottom lip nervously. Harry shakes his head and shrugs.

 

"Nothing. Just said you were annoying," He lies, but Louis believes it anyways and seems less tense than he had before. "The babies are cute, though. M'sure you were a cute baby- Not that you're not cute now," Harry quickly adds, biting his lip and feeling his cheeks heat with embarrassment. "You are cute now, but you know, babies." He stops talking before he embarrasses himself even further, glancing up at Louis. "Sorry."

 

"S'fine, H," Louis says, smiling in amusement. Harry pauses. H?

 

"H?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. Louis shrugs, standing up and grabbing his phone.

 

"Nickname. C'mon, I want food," Louis demands, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling him off the sofa. Harry rolls his eyes and stands up, following Louis into the kitchen and leaning against the counter. Louis opens the cabinet and frowns, going to the open the fridge and closing it in defeat. "We don't have any food."

 

Harry blinks, opening the cabinets again and bites his lip. "We could make something, if you want," He suggests, grabbing flour and sugar out of the cabinet. Louis furrows his brows, watching Harry grab  ingredients and standing out of the way.

 

"You cook?" He asks, grabbing the eggs and staring that them as if he had never seen them before. Harry looks at him and chuckles, shaking his head and grabbing a bowl from the bottom cabinet. "Make me food."

 

"I cook a bit. Bake, mostly. Work at a bakery on the weekends," Harry tells him, getting a measuring cup and pouring flour. Louis seems impressed, going to grab the bag of chocolate chips. Harry swats his hand away and Louis pouts, propping himself on the counter and watching Harry mix everything into the bowl.

 

"I'm keeping you," Louis says, waiting until Harry turns around and puts the pan of cookies in the oven to grab the chocolate chips and grins. Harry turns back around and looks at Louis, rolling his eyes. He grabs a handful of flour and throws it at Louis. The older boy gasps, accidentally breathing in the flour and having a coughing fit. Harry laughs when Louis regains his breath, grinning innocently.

 

Louis slides off the counter, shaking the flour out of his hair and grabbing one of the eggs and cracking it on the counter. Harry looks at him with a confused expression, realizing what was happening when it was too late and he has hair full of egg. "There. Even." Harry reaches his hand up and touches the egg in his hair, making a disgusted face. "That's a good look on you, H," Louis says, grinning.

 

Harry flicks the egg out of his hair, grabbing the bowl of leftover batter and dumping it in Louis's hair before the other boy can protest. Louis widens his eyes, grabbing the batter from his hair and throwing it at Harry. It gets on the younger boy's face and Louis smirks, licking stuck batter off his fingers. Harry keeps his eyes on Louis's lips, shaking his head and snapping out of his daze.

 

Louis reaches for another egg to crack at Harry, tapping it on the counter when he's interrupted.

 

"  _Louis William Tomlinson,"_  Louis freezes, turning around and being met with a not-so-pleased woman. Harry's gonna go ahead and assume that his mum.

 

He drops the egg, wincing when it splats on the floor. "Hey mum," He says as innocently as he can manage. Harry bites his lip behind him, not sure if he should say anything or stay quiet. Maybe staying quiet would be the better option, for now. This really wasn't the first impression he wanted to make with Louis's family.

 

"You must be Louis's mum," Harry finds himself saying. She looks over at him and quickly softens. He smiles and holds out the hand that isn't covered in flour and egg. "M'Harry. Styles- Harry Styles. I go to school with Louis."

 

She looks over at Louis again and raises an eyebrow. Louis bites his lip and gives her a look, rolling his eyes.

 

"I'm Jay, it's lovely to meet you, Harry," She says, smiling softly. She immediately goes back to giving Louis a stern look and Harry speaks again before either of them can say anything.

 

"I'm really sorry about the mess. We were making cookies and things got out of hand," He says sheepishly. "We'll clean it, promise."

 

"What Harry said," Louis adds, giving his mum a kiss on the cheek and pushing her out of the kitchen. "Love you mum, I think Lottie needs you upstairs," He says quickly, grinning when she's finally gone and turning back to Harry. The younger boy tosses him a washcloth and Louis sighs, starting to wipe down the counter. "We'll clean it, promise," He says, mocking Harry's voice. Harry rolls his eyes and starts on the dishes, glancing over at Louis and smiling softly.

 

"Had to make a somewhat good first impression." He shrugs and puts the dishes away. Louis sticks his tongue out at him and finishes wiping down the counter. "All you have to do is mop and we're done."

 

"Or you can mop and I can stand here with the rag and look busy," Louis suggests, holding the washcloth up. Harry sighs, but smiles anyways and finishes with the dishes. He grabs the mop and starts mopping off all of the flour and egg on the floor, putting it away when it's done and grinning. Louis tosses the washcloth in the sink and grabs Harry's hand, pulling him up the stairs and into his bedroom.

 

He shuts the door behind them and Harry quickly raises an eyebrow, flinching when Louis throws clothes at him. "What are you doing?" Harry asks, looking down at the clothes in his hands.

 

Louis looks up at him and purses his lips for a minute before speaking. "Can you spend the night?" He asks. Harry's slightly taken back by the question, but nods quickly without realizing that he should probably ask his mum first. Oh well, if worst comes to worst, he'll just ask Niall to cover for him. It'll result in endless teasing from the lad, but it's completely worth it to get an entire night alone with Louis.

 

"Yeah, sure," He finally says and Louis grins, grabbing clothes for himself and setting them on the bed.

 

"You can shower first, if you want," Louis says. "S'the second door on the right. There's extra towels in there." Harry nods and turns to leave the room, smiling to himself as he heads down the hallway to the bathroom.

 

When both of them are showered and batter free, they go back downstairs to retrieve the creation made from their kitchen fight. Louis quickly grabs a cookie before they're cooled, accidentally burning his hand and running it under cold water while Harry tries his best not to laugh at him.

 

"You could've warned me," Louis mumbles, turning the water off and drying his hand on a towel. Harry rolls his eyes and grins fondly.

 

"They just came out the oven, Lou," It's a slip of the tongue, but Louis doesn't seem to notice it, so he continues speaking. "It's kind of common sense."

 

Louis mumbles something that Harry can't quite make out and he can't help but notice how cute Louis looks while he does it. Harry gets lost in his own thoughts for a minute, wondering why he had been so intimidated by Louis for the past four years when the older boy was just as clumsy and awkward as himself. The only difference being that Louis doesn't worry about tripping over his words when he talks to people.

 

He snaps himself out of it when he realizes that Louis was speaking to him, biting his lip and nodding along blindly, his gaze glued on Louis's lips and his mind wondering what it would be like to kiss him. He sighs to himself, running a hand through his hair and smiling softly when Louis asks him if the cookies are cool enough yet.

 

"Yes, Lou," He tells him, grinning when Louis grabs one, seeming as excited as a child. He grabs one of his own and follows Louis back up to his bedroom, sitting on the bed with him and watching as Louis puts his iPod on. "Any word from Zayn?" He asks, biting his lip and quickly checking for something from Niall and sighing when he doesn't have any messages.

 

"Nothing," Louis mutters, tossing his phone to the side and rolling his eyes. "Just in case they fucked it all up this time, let's plan something else."

 

* * *

 

 

Monday rolls around and Harry's left to face nothing but hell from Niall for spending the night at Louis's on Saturday. He knew this would happen, but then again Louis let him sleep in the same bed, so it really wasn't a problem. That's more than Niall can say about him and Zayn.

 

"You're telling me that you spent the  _night_  with Louis and you still didn't get laid?" Niall asks, voice laced with disbelief. Harry shrugs and grabs his books from his locker, shoving them in his bag and shutting his locker door.

 

How was he even supposed to get that far with Louis anyways? Is there some sort of step by step to show you how to sleep with your high school crush or do you just have to sit there and figure it out yourself? Do you take them out on a date after? Pretend it never happened and act like you don't know them when you see them in the hallway? He's not the expert on this sort of thing, he's barely even had his first kiss.

 

"We weren't focused on that, Niall," He says, rolling his eyes. Niall scoffs, shoving Harry's shoulder as they walk along to their Creative Writing class.

 

"What were you focused on, then? Because it was probably fucking stupid compared to what you could've been doing."

 

The reality of it is, they were going over how they would get Niall and Zayn together by the end of the school year if the art show plan hadn't worked the way they expected it to. And it hadn't, since Niall told  Harry that Zayn had just ignored him for most of the time they had been there. Onto plan C, then, they decided.

 

"His sisters were home," Is all he says back until they reach their classroom. He can feel Niall staring at the back of his head, but he does his best to ignore it and pretend the blonde boy isn't there. He's done it plenty of times before. It's practically a talent at this point. "And his mum."

 

"So you met the family already?" Niall teases, nudging Harry's side with his elbow and grinning. Harry flips him off when they sit at their desk, taking his journal out and facing away from Niall as he does every time they're in this class class. Or at lunch. Or anywhere Harry takes his journal out around Niall, really. The only person's he's really let read through it was Louis at the beginning of the school year  and they're almost three weeks in, yet he still doesn't know why he lets Louis read his notebook whenever he asks. Maybe it's just impossible for him to say no to Louis Tomlinson.

 

Zayn comes into the classroom a few seconds before the bell rings, sitting in his seat in front of Niall and turning around to face the both of them. Harry waves quickly, going back to his journal. He can feel Niall roll his eyes next to him, but quite frankly, he doesn't give a shit.

 

"Harry, Louis asked me to tell you to meet him in the school parking lot after school," Zayn tells him and Harry looks up, raising an eyebrow. "Don't ask me why."

 

Harry nods slowly, returning his attention to his journal but ending up lost in his thoughts about what Louis could want to talk about with him after school. It had to do with their newest plan for Niall and Zayn probably, with how Harry would bring Niall to footie tryouts and Louis would drag Zayn along so that the two would be forced to talk. Harry would be too busy taking pictures and Louis too busy, well, actually  _trying out_  for the team. It was the perfect third try, they think.

 

"Alright," He mumbles quickly, smiling softly when he's sure Zayn isn't looking anymore. He's so fucking gone for this boy that he's only talked to for a few weeks, but there's just something about Louis that made him feel this way. It's like Louis was everything he had thought he was and then more. The boy was perfect, to put it simply.

 

The thought of what Louis could want to talk to him about floats through his mind throughout the entire class, only to distract him in in last few class as well. One day he'll figure out why and how Louis Tomlinson has such an effect on him. But for now he'll just spend his time pathetically pining over the boy and pretending that he might have a chance in the distant future.

 

His mind is still wandering, even as he's approaching Louis in the school parking lot. He should stop being like this eventually, maybe. He should be able to keep his cool around Louis at this point, he can  already hold a proper conversation with him. It's all so ridiculous to him. It's been about two or three weeks since they started talking, they've hung out, he's  _slept over,_  why was this concept such a problem for him.

 

"Harry!" Louis exclaims when Harry reaches him, smiling widely and pulling the taller boy into a hug. Harry's taken back for a minute, trying to process his thoughts and find a way to react, hugging back before it gets weird and smiling softly. "Do you wanna go to a movie?"

 

Harry blinks a couple times, definitely not expecting that. "Do I- What?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. This was just a friendly thing, right? It wasn't a date or anything, he's sure.

 

"A movie. You can invite Niall and I'll bring Zayn and maybe they'll end up making out by the end of it," Louis explains further. Harry frowns for a split second, then feigns a smile and nods quickly. Of course it wasn't a date. Just another plan to get Niall and Zayn together. He should've expected that, honestly. "Sick, tomorrow after school?" Harry nods again, standing in the parking lot in a half daze even after they've said their goodbyes and Louis's left with Zayn and a few of his other friends.

 

He sighs, kicking at the ground and walking towards his own car. A date. As if.

 

* * *

 

 

"So it's a date," Niall says as they're walking into the movie theater. Harry rolls his eyes and slides his phone in his pocket.

 

"No Niall, it's not a date," Harry tells him, looking around and smiling when he sees Louis over by the concessions counter with Zayn. He grabs Niall's arm and pulls him in that direction, almost shoving Niall into Zayn when they get to them. Louis looks up at him and smiles, handing him the tub of popcorn and a ticket. Harry looks down at it and bites his lip. "You didn't have to-"

 

"It's free. I work here," Louis reassures, smiling softly. Harry nods slowly, trying to remember if he's ever seen Louis here before. Nothing pops up, but maybe he's just never there when Louis is. It's not like he goes to the movies often, but he might just start now that he knows Louis works here. "We're gonna go see Night At The Museum." Harry nods and shoves the ticket in his pocket, smiling softly, looking down at the popcorn tub.

 

Louis and Harry choose to claim seats at the top of the theater, which conveniently happen to be the only two seats left in that row. They give each other a smug look while Zayn and Niall sit in a couple of  seats a few rows down, sitting down in their own seats.

 

"That worked out, then," Harry says, grabbing a handful of popcorn and glancing over at Louis. Louis nods and takes a sip from their drink, leaning back when the lights start to dim and setting the drink down in the cup holder. Harry settles down into his seat and hands the popcorn over to Louis, drumming his fingers against his thigh and looking over at Louis every few seconds while the movie is just beginning.

 

Halfway through the movie, Harry gives up on his concentration, looking around the theater before his gaze lands on Louis. Something funny happens in the film and Louis starts laughing, causing Harry to  start smiling fondly when he hears the older boy laugh and sees his smile. Louis glances over at him and he quickly stares at the screen, waiting until he's sure Louis's focused on the movie to continue staring. He's pretty sure this is one of the things Niall would make fun of him for. Call him creepy or something, which okay, maybe it is, but he can't really  _help_  it. Louis's just kind of a great person to just, like, sit and admire what he's like.

 

By the time he forces himself to look back at the movie, it's nearing the end and their popcorn supply is dwindling low. Zayn and Niall still haven't even spoken to each other during the movie and maybe Harry should've warned Louis about that. Once Niall gets into a movie, there's no getting him out. It's all or nothing for him, not even Zayn can snap him out of it.

 

He reaches his hand into the popcorn tub, which is apparently the same time Louis decides he wants popcorn as well. It's like this entire day was made to be some stupid, high school cliche. Their hands  brush together and Harry quickly grabs a handful of popcorn and pulls his hands away. He mentally scolds himself for making it seem like a bigger deal than it actually is, especially when he feels Louis's eyes on him for a few seconds before he looks back at the screen.

 

When the movie's over, Harry hesitates for a minute before standing up and following Louis out of the theater. They meet Niall and Zayn in the lobby and the two are already engaged in a full conversation about the movie. Louis and Harry look at each other and smirk before walking up to the two and interrupting their conversation.

 

"So lads, how'd you enjoy the movie?" Louis asks them, nudging Zayn's arm at the same time. Zayn gives him a confused glance and shrugs.

 

"Was alright. Funny," Zayn says, biting his lip and giving Louis a look. Louis nods slowly, looking over at Harry with a confused expression. Harry figures that Louis was too caught up in the movie to realize that all Niall and Zayn did was just...sit there and watch the movie. Like how normal people usually do, he supposes.

 

Harry shakes his head and Louis frowns, letting out a sigh and shoving Zayn. Zayn shoves him back and it's a good two minutes of the both of them going back and forth. Harry laughs and shoves his hands in his pockets, looking over at Niall, who has his eyes glued on Zayn. It's kind of endearing, the way Niall looks at Zayn like he can fix all the world's problems just by existing. He has to remind himself to tease Niall about that later.

 

Zayn finally gives up on the shoving, grabbing the leftover popcorn from Louis and telling Niall to follow him out to the parking lot. Louis and Harry both roll their eyes at the two of them, Louis crossing his arms and watching them as they walk out. "So there was no making out?"

 

"Nope," Harry sighs and Louis groans.

 

"Alright then, H," Louis starts. "Next plan."

 

For the past four years of being at this hellhole of a school, footie tryouts were one of the highlights of Harry's year. There's honestly nothing better than a sweaty Louis Tomlinson running around the pitch  in shorts. He tries to keep his imagination to a minimum, but he honestly can't help it if the only thing on his mind the entire time is what it would be like to have Louis fuck him on the football field. Or in the  locker rooms. On the bleachers. Anywhere, really. To be honest, his only goal here is to somehow lose his virginity to Louis, he really doesn't give a shit where and when it happens.

 

He stands at the bottom of the bleachers, camera in hand and eyes fixed on the players. Well- Louis. He bites his lip, snapping a few pictures of all of the players and moving over to get a different angle. Zayn joins him on the bleachers a few minutes after the players start practicing, making Harry wonder where the hell Niall was. He said he would be here not too long after the bell rung and it's twenty minutes later with no sign of him.

 

Harry glances around after he takes a few more shots, spotting Niall over by the other set of bleachers, chatting up a brunette girl that he's seen with Louis a few times. Her name was Eleanor or something like that and they had been the leads in almost all of the school plays for the past few years. He had thought her and Louis were dating for a while, as well, but Louis happily confirmed to him not too long ago that him and Eleanor had always been and will always be just friends and cast mates. Harry couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief when Louis wasn't paying attention to him.

 

"What do you think of Louis, then?" Zayn asks him when the silence gets too much for the both of them. Harry slowly lowers his camera and looks back at Zayn, raising an eyebrow.

 

"What do you mean?" Harry responds, drawling out the sentence. Had Zayn noticed? He had tried to be discreet about it, then again, Niall had always told him he was a shit actor. He can't act for the life of him, forget trying to hide how much of a blushing idiot he was for Louis. "Louis's a cool lad," He continues, pretending to be casual about the question and turning around to take more pictures of Louis- The team, he means.

 

He can feel Zayn staring at him while he's taking pictures, but he refuses to give into it. If he ignores him, maybe he'll let the whole situation go. "That's it?" Zayn says. Harry internally groans. For fucks sake, Zayn, leave the situation  _alone._  


 

"He's funny, a good friend," Harry says, trying to keep his cool. What was Zayn trying to get out of him? It's not like he's going to go and describe how he feels about how blue Louis's eyes are. Or how soft  and nice his hair looks, or the way Louis would just kind of slot into him. He wants to, but he won't.

 

"Oh," is all Zayn says after. Harry's glad that the conversation is over for now, going back to focusing on the pictures. He loves watching Louis play every time he comes to practices or games. He's always been such a natural at it and he gets so concentrated on what he's supposed to do, just like when Harry sits in on play rehearsals or goes to see the actual performance. Louis puts one hundred percent into everything he does and honestly, it's admirable. They're only half an hour into the tryouts and he already knows that Louis's gonna do the best here. Then again, he's also extremely biased.

 

"He likes having you around," Zayn says after a few moments of silence. Harry nods, getting a few more shots at different angles and spots. "More than me, I reckon." Harry chuckles at that, shaking his head and turning around to look at Zayn again.

 

"Doubt that bit," He tells him with a small grin. He sits on the bleachers with Zayn, looking through all of the pictures he had gotten and frowns. They were all mostly of Louis. He hadn't noticed that he was  focused on  _just_  Louis. That was a bit of a problem. He sighs in annoyance, lifting his camera again and getting more shots of the rest of the players, looking them afterward and smiling in satisfactory.

 

He puts his camera away and takes his journal out, simultaneously trying to write while watching Louis run across the field. It's really the ideal situation.

 

Tryouts ends an hour or so later and Niall's still over on the other side with Eleanor. Harry sighs and stands up, shouting a quick praise to Louis before making his way over to the idiot that he unfortunately  called his best friend. Honestly, if he really wanted Zayn that much he wouldn't be making it this hard for Louis and Harry to get them together.

 

"Niall!" He shouts, catching the blonde boy's attention. Niall waves him off, continuing to talk and flirt with Eleanor. Harry groans, narrowing his eyes and coming up to the two of them. He pulls on Niall's sweatshirt, turning around and looking at where Zayn and Louis were stood talking. Niall frowns as Harry pulls him away, pushing his hand off and crossing his arms as he walks along side him.  

 

"What the hell d'ya do that for?" Niall asks, annoyance in his tone. Harry shrugs, leading them both over to Zayn and Louis. Louis looks over at the both of them and raises an eyebrow at Harry, who just shrugs and smiles weakly. Louis purses his lips, giving Harry a look that he now recognizes as  _'text me about it'_. He forgets that he has Louis's number sometimes. Hell, he still can't believe that he's capable of having a casual conversation with him at this point. If you would've told him three years ago that he and Louis were going to be friends, he would've called you crazy.

 

Harry nods, smiling at Zayn and pulling Niall's arm towards his car. Niall looks over at him with furrowed brows and Harry's sure he's gonna ask too many questions, but he just stays silent. Harry sighs in relief, not sure of what excuse he would've used. He takes his phone out quickly, texting Louis what had been going on with Niall and shoves his phone back in his pocket before getting in his car.

* * *

 

 

By the time the holidays roll around, Eleanor's got a boyfriend. One that isn't Niall. Louis explains everything to Harry at lunch one day when Eleanor and her new boyfriend, Max, stroll in the cafeteria hand in hand. One of Zayn's art friends had seemed like her type, so Louis went and set the two of them up and there went that entire situation. Harry was definitely impressed and relieved with that one.

 

"Alright then matchmaker, when are you gonna find me my soul mate," Harry jokes, shoving Louis's shoulder slightly. Their friendship had blossomed more over the few months they had spent plotting and failing to get Niall and Zayn together. They had done everything they could possibly think of during that time span, from locking them in a classroom together to going on fake dates and leaving them alone together. It had actually gotten to the point where Zayn and Niall had accused  _them_  of dating behind their backs and begged them both to stop dragging them along on their dates. As much as Harry wished that were the case, it unfortunately wasn't.

 

Louis scoffs and rolls his eyes, shoving Harry back. "Never. You'll be stuck with me for the rest of your lonely life," Louis says, smirking. Jokes on him, that sounds absolutely  _wonderful to_  Harry. "What's your type, then? I mean, I can try, but I can't promise that you'll find anyone better than me."

 

Harry shakes his head and grins, stopping at his locker and watching as Louis leaned against the one next to it. All Harry really wanted to do right now was lean down and kiss him like all the high school couples did on tv and in books. Louis was in the perfect position and his hair was up in a quiff and Harry's actually extremely surprised that he hasn't died yet. "No one could compare to you, Tomlinson," Harry teases, grabbing his books for his last few classes. He shuts his locker and begins walking with Louis again to their French class. "You're the only one for me."

 

Louis laughs and Harry grins, wrapping an arm around Louis's shoulders. "Glad. That's how it should be," Louis says, sticking his tongue out at Harry. Harry can feel people in the hall staring at the, but he's learned to ignore in them within the time that Louis and Harry had been friends. Niall said that some girls in his health class had thought they were dating and a few of Louis's friends in Drama class had been teasing him about it, too. It's flattering that people think that Harry's in Louis's league.

 

They walk into their class and sit in their seats, Louis snatching Harry's French homework as soon as he takes it out to copy it before class starts. Harry rolls his eyes but lets him, messing with his phone until the bell rings and Louis hands his homework back. "You know, you wouldn't have this problem if you would actually do your homework," Harry whispers, putting his phone away. Louis shrugs and taps his pen on the desk, hiding his phone under his desk with his free hand. Harry chuckles and shakes his head, leaning back in his seat and stealing glances at Louis every few minutes.

 

The class passes in a daze, the both of them having spent most of it texting back and forth with each other. Not like that's what they did every time they were apart from each other for more than an hour anyways.

 

"Do you want to come over today?" Harry asks, looking over at Louis while the older boy and grabbing his book. Louis looks up at him and nods, smiling. "I can help you with your French homework. And basically everything." He grins. Three months ago he wouldn't have even dreamed of inviting Louis over to his place. Now here he was, the day before winter break begins, doing it as if it was apart of his everyday routine. Which at this point, it practically was. And this nowadays they even talked about things that didn't have anything to do with Zayn and Niall.

 

"And by help, you mean let me copy you, right?" Louis says, laughing and pulling Harry out of the classroom. Harry shakes his head, but smiles fondly at Louis. "But sure. I'll be by after practice," He tells him. Harry nods and starts to go off in the opposite direction. He turns around a few seconds later, slowly walking backwards and looking to see where Louis was at this point.

 

"Don't be late!" He yells by the time Louis's halfway down the hall. Louis flips him off and turns around, sticking his tongue out. Harry blows him a kiss and starts off to his last class of the day, ignoring all of the stares just as he did before. He's gotten better at that, he thinks.

 

* * *

 

"Right then Harold," Louis says, laying in Harry's lap and looking up at him. "Tell me about your first kiss."

 

Harry looks down at   Louis and purses his lips. There's not really much to say about his first kiss. He was eleven and all of his other friends had kissed a girl so he had decided to try it as well. It was somewhere against a tree or something. He tries not to think about it.

 

He shrugs. "Kissed a girl when I was eleven. Against a tree," He bites his lip and grins. "It was  _pretty_  steamy."

 

Louis rolls his eyes and smacks his arm, getting up and sitting across from Harry on his bed. "I had mine when I was eleven, too. Except mine was with a boy," He sticks his tongue out and Harry waves him off, gesturing for him to continue. "My best mate at the time, Stan, and I were both like, confused I guess. So we locked my bedroom door and just kissed each other. It was weird," Louis makes a face. "Not because it was a boy, that part was fine. But like, just because it was a close friend. S'not like I had a secret crush on him or anything, you know?"

 

No, Harry doesn't know. He can happily say he's never kissed Niall and he never plans to either. Louis, on the other hand, he would love to kiss. Then again, he also has a secret crush on Louis, so that doesn't really count, does it? Louis counts as a lot of things for him, but that's not one of them

 

He nods anyways, drumming his fingers against his thigh and staring at Louis's lips. He lets his mind drift for a moment, finding all of his thoughts scrambling to fit themselves together, the way they always do when it comes to Louis. He wonders what it's like to tell someone you have feelings for them, to let them know that you want them in a way that's more than just friends. He wants to know what it's like to be able to just kiss someone because you can, bring them flowers when they're sad, hold their hand when they're feeling lonely. He's never been able to do any of this with someone he really cares about and right now, the only person he feels that way about is Louis. He wants to properly date Louis, flowers, dates, the lot of it. He wants to lean in and kiss him and tell him everything he's ever felt since he'd first laid eyes on him during Freshman year in English class.

 

He wants to go through his notebook with Louis and point out how every song is about him. The beautiful blue eyes and feathery brown hair is all him, not some random bloke he;s seen around or something like that. The meanings, all the words have to do with Louis. Louis Louis Louis. That's the only thing that's ever on his mind and it;s like his heart skips ten beats just when Louis says his name  or even speaks to him about anything.

 

And that's love, is what that is. Harry's in love with Louis and he'll happily admit it to himself because that's how much if a hopeless romantic he is. He'll write all the damn love songs and poems if it means he's able to somehow describe how strongly he feels about Louis. To describe how terrified he is to do something about. Louis's right here, right in front of him and he's not gonna do a damn thing about it just because of a fear of getting rejected. He was a fucking moron. A moron in love.

 

"Can I spend the night?" Louis asks, snapping Harry out of his thoughts. Harry nods and smiles, running a hands through his hair and taking his phone off of his charge. He contemplates texting Niall how he feels right now, but he knows that will probably just be met with too many heart emojis and teasing. He could maybe talk to Gemma about it, or even his mum, but he could also keep it to himself and hope that maybe one day he'll finally have the fucking courage to tell Louis how he feels. Maybe Louis will tell him he feels the same way and he would've kept this to himself for no fucking reason.

 

Maybe. But that day won't be today.

 

"My mum's not home, but it should be fine," He says, looking back over at Louis. "I can order take away and we can watch really stupid movies like last time."

 

Louis grins at that and nods. "Sounds like a plan, Styles," He says, getting up from the bed and going over to Harry's dresser to taken one of his t-shirts and a pair of joggers. If there's anything Harry's learned about Louis, it's that he sort if just does things just because he wants to. Honestly, Harry's lucky he doesn't have a hidden stash of porn somewhere in his room, otherwise Louis would have been long gone at this point. There's been numerous accounts of Louis just going through all of Harry's stuff, his journal included, just because he can. And Harry never says anything about it, because why would he? It's a blessing that he has Louis in his bedroom in the first place. He doesn't really have anything to hide and if Louis's gonna wear one of his t-shirts, who is he to complain about it?

 

Another thing he's learned about Louis, is that he's not afraid of getting naked in front of other people. He supposes that has to do with showering and getting changed in front of other guys in the locker room daily, but still. Harry could do with a little warning as to when he was going to have an eyeful of shirtless Louis. Like exactly right now while Louis's getting changed. He tries not to stare as Louis pulls off his t-shirt and changes into one of Harry's, which is actually a very hard task. Especially when Louis pulls his jeans down to put on the joggers, He deserves a prize or something for having some self control. There's so many images going through his mind right now that include him, Louis and the bed, but it’s not like he's not going to voice any of those suggestions aloud. Not this time, at least.

 

When Louis's changed, he sits back down on the bed with Harry, as if that entire thing didn't just happen. As if Harry didn't have a semi right now just because if Louis Tomlinson's abs. This was all bullshit, he doesn't remember when he got this sexually frustrated. He's gonna go ahead and blame Niall for that one.

 

"Haz. Takeaway," Louis reminds him, grabbing Harry's laptop and going through all of the movies he had on there. He could always suggest that they just put a movie on and snog all the way through it, but that may come off a bit too forward.

 

He rolls his eyes and calls the number for the Thai place, tossing his phone on the bed when the order is placed and sitting beside Louis. "Demanding, aren't you?" He teases, poking Louis's side. Louis flinches as Harry does that, pushing his hand away and moving over away from Harry. Harry raises an eyebrow in confusion, but quickly realizes the situation and smirks. "Lou," He says, leaning over and  poking Louis's side again. Louis swats his hand away once more and suppresses a smile, biting his lip and trying his hardest to focus on whatever was on his phone. Harry grin and moves closes, poking  more at Louis's sides before the older boy is in fits of giggles with his crinkly eyed smile that Harry loves to fawn over.

 

"Fuck off, Styles," Louis squeals, trying to swat Harry's hands away, but to no avail. He continues giggling, covering his stomach with his hands and swatting lightly at Harry's shoulders. Harry stops just a few second later, sitting back on the bed as if nothing happened. Louis sits up straight again, leaning over and pushing Harry off the bed before returning to his phone screen. Harry falls to the floor with a thud, earning another cute giggle from Louis. "We're watching Grease."

 

Harry looks up from the floor in disbelief, getting up and sitting beside Louis on the bed. "You're obsessed with that movie," Harry mutters, but the look of fondness on his face cancels out any sort of annoyance that may have been detected in his tone.

 

"You're obsessed with Love Actually, it cancels out," Louis replies, pressing play on Harry's laptop. Harry rolls his eyes and lays back in his bed, leaning over and turning off the lamp on his bedside table. Louis lays beside him, leaning into him and training his eyes on the laptop screen as the movie begin. Louis cuddles a lot, he's noticed. Which is completely fine. Harry's not dying on the inside or anything. He's completely okay right now, why wouldn't he be? He can handle a cuddly and soft Louis Tomlinson that's in a t-shirt that's too big for him. It's not killing him at all. This is fine.

 

The takeaway comes twenty minutes into the movie and Harry's dreading having to get up. Louis's made himself comfortable and he's humming along to the songs in the movie and this is the most endearing thing he has ever had the pleasure of watching Louis do.

 

He sighs when Louis pushes him to get out of bed, grabbing his wallet from the nightstand and heading downstairs to get the takeaway as quickly as he can. He comes back upstairs minutes later with the bag in his hand, setting it on the bed and laying back down beside Louis. Louis, on the other hand, is now distracted with rice and noodles and sits up, happily humming along to Hopelessly Devoted to You and grabbing the bag.

 

"You're just gonna drop me for noodles, is that how we're gonna play this game, Tomlinson?" Harry jokes, shoving Louis's shoulder playfully and grabbing one of the rice containers. Louis grins like a kid on Christmas day, grabbing the one with noodles and cuddling back into Harry once he has a fork. Harry looks over at him and smiles, watching how animated he gets with the movies. He's not gonna say anything to him about it, but Louis's been mumbling the lines of the movie to himself for the past twenty five minutes they've been watching it and it hasn't failed to make Harry smile and laugh yet.

 

"That's exactly how we're gonna play it," Louis says, laughing. He offers Harry some of his noodles, but Harry happily declines it and lays content with his rice. His gaze flickers to Louis every few minutes,  smiling softly when Louis begins to either mumble the lines or softly sing the songs. He remembers when their school did Grease a couple of years ago and Louis got cast as Danny. Zayn said that Louis  was overjoyed to get that part and he wouldn't stop talking about it. That's one of the things Harry loves most about him. How excited he gets over the things that matter most to him, even if no one else cares about them. It's amazingly endearing and adorable.

 

Harry instinctively wraps an arm over Louis's shoulders and Louis curls into him more. Now would be the perfect time for Harry to lean down and kiss him, but he bites his lip instead and focuses back on  his laptop screen. He's such a coward when it comes to this sort of thing. He hates it.

* * *

 

 

Waking up to rocks hitting your window on Christmas Eve isn't how Harry expected the day to start out, but here he his begrudgingly going over to his window to probably tell Niall to go the fuck home. He's done this too many times before, yelling out "Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your long hair" just annoy him. It got old around the tenth time he had done it at eight am just because he could. At this point, Harry's questioning why he's friends with Niall in the first place. He doesn't really benefit him in anyways, unless you count endless teasing and innuendos. In that case, then yes. Niall may benefit him as a friend.

 

He's met with a lovely surprise, though, when he opens the window and Louis is stood there instead with a handful of small rocks. Harry looks down at him, confused. Louis just drops the rocks and gestures for Harry to come down. Harry sighs and closes his window, getting dressed quickly and grabbing his phone and his bag before sneaking downstairs and leaving a note for his mum on the kitchen fridge. He meets Louis outside and smiles tiredly, pulling on his beanie and shoving his hands in his coat pockets.

 

"What's today, Harold?" Louis asks, biting his lip. Harry stares at him and blinks. Christmas Eve. That's what today is and Louis's woken him up at nine am on Christmas Eve. He would yell at him, but it's  Louis and he can't bring himself to do so, no matter how tired he is at the moment. His mum was probably gonna wake him up in twenty minutes for breakfast, anyways. Louis saved him from a family day of Gemma teasing him about his crush on Louis and his mum constantly referencing to Louis as Harry's boyfriend. He wishes that were the case.

 

He opens his mouth to answer, but pauses and thinks harder. December twenty fourth, is there anything else he should be remembering? Holidays, events, birthdays....Shit, it's Louis's birthday. "Your birthday?" He says, biting his lip and raising an eyebrow. You would think he would've remembered this small detail. It's not like he wrote it on his calendar as soon as Louis told him when his birthday was. He remembers now, thinking to himself that it all makes sense because Louis is a gift to him and this entire fucking world.

 

Louis grins and nods, opening his bag and pulling out a bag of deflated balloons and bags of confetti. "Wanna wreck havoc?" He asks, handing Harry the balloons. Harry looks down at them and stares for  a moment, before looking back up at Louis and smiling. Louis takes that as a yes and pulls out a couple of party hats out of the bag, stepping forward and putting one on over Harry's beanie. He puts one on himself, opening the bags of confetti and dumping them in the bigger bag. Harry re-adjusts his hat, opening the pack of balloons and beginning to inflate them while they begin walking.

 

"What exactly are we doing?" Harry asks, handing the first balloon to Louis. Louis stops walking and drops it, grabbing out a handful of confetti and throwing it over them. Harry furrows his brows before laughing and shaking his head. They begin walking again, Harry blowing up another balloon. He wonders how much air he's going to lose just because of this one pack of balloons. His lips are already beginning to hurt and his thoughts flicker if this is what it would be like to give a blow job. He glances down quickly at Louis's crotch and then looks straight ahead again. His mind will not go there, he won't  let it.

 

"I want to leave balloons and confetti everywhere. Zayn never lets me do it, but now I have you," Louis tells him, grabbing the balloon when Harry's finished blowing it up. He drops it and throws more confetti. "And also," He takes out a black box from the bag, blowing off the confetti and handing it to Harry. "If there's anything I’ve learned, it's that newly engaged couples always get free cake." He grins as Harry grabs the box from him. Harry looks between him and the box, opening it and widening his eyes when he sees the ring that's in it. "It's not real." Harry nods slowly, shoving the ring back in his pocket and blowing up another balloon. It's probably one of those stage rings they use in plays and stuff like that. He should've guessed that. As if Louis would get an actual ring for a fake engagement.

 

They leave balloons and confetti everywhere until they've run out of both and Louis wants to go get cake. Louis pulls them to the nearest restaurant, standing outside the front of it and nudging Harry's shoulder when he sees a few people inside looking at them. Harry rolls his eyes and smiles, getting down on one knee and pulling the black box out his pocket. A small crowd gathers around them and Harry's stomach starts to turn, but he lets out a deep breath and looks back up at Louis. This is all fake, anyways. It's not like the rest of his life depended on this one moment. Louis was going to say yes so they could get their free cake, there may be a hug and a tear and that was the end of that. No big deal.

 

"Louis William Tomlinson, will you do me the honors of marrying me?" He says, trying to keep him voice steady. Louis's pretending to cry and for a minute Harry thinks he's actually crying before he realizes that Louis's an  _actor_. This is what he does all the time, is  _act._  No wonder he's gotten all the leads in the school plays.

 

"Yes," Louis says dramatically, letting Harry slip the ring on his finger. This is all so fucking ridiculous and dumb, but at the same time he's enjoying the hell out of it and Louis's a genius sometimes. He stands up and hugs Louis tightly while the people around them clap. He's quickly taken off-guard when Louis pulls away quickly and gives him a look of confusion, before Louis pulls him down and kisses him. He closes his eyes instinctively, letting Louis's soft lips move against his. He's kissing Louis Tomlinson. What the fuck is happening right now.

 

It lasts for a good minute, Louis pulling away and acting as if that didn't just happen. Harry stands in a bit of a daze, not realizing when one of the waiters comes out with a slice of cake for them and Louis's poking his arms. He snaps out of it, grabbing a fork from Louis and sitting at one of the outside tables with him. He doesn't bring up the kiss the entire time they're sat down, only because he's sure Louis had just done it to make it all seem more realistic. Louis fake kisses people all the time for drama, it doesn't mean anything just because it was Harry.

* * *

 

 

Adding to the list of extremely amazing things about Louis Tomlinson, is that every party he throws is absolutely wicked.

 

He had thrown one a few days after Christmas for his birthday and it had ended in a very drunk Harry flirting with everyone in sight. Niall wouldn't stop making fun of him for days. At least now he knows that he's not as socially inept when he's completely wasted. He woke up the next day, with five numbers in his phone that he didn't recognize. Woke up still a virgin, though. That disappointed him, a bit. At least he still has time to make Louis his first time. That might've been a blessing in disguise, that one.

 

Louis's New Years party was going even better than that one was, especially since Zayn and Niall had both shown up for once and Louis had come up with a plan to get them to kiss at midnight. Harry wasn't completely sure on what the plan was, but four drinks and a couple of hours late, he didn't really care what it was. He was completely focused on finding Louis and convincing him to dance with him. He would dance with Louis tonight, he was sure of it. He was kind of drunk and his confidence had gone up by at least ten points since he had originally gotten there.

 

A random guy grabs his hand and starts dancing with to, to which he happily obliges and dances, too out of it to do anything else. He likes going to Louis's parties. He likes getting drunk and being able to flirt and grab the attention of people he would have never dreamed of getting noticed by. But still, none of them are Louis. All he really wants is him.

 

He pulls away from the guy a few minutes later, stumbling around and searching for the shorter boy. He hadn't seen him since he first got there and his phone was dead so it;s not like he could just send him a text or something. This is really fucking difficult. When he does have the courage and confidence to tell Louis how he feels, to actually do something about all of these things that are rushing through his head whenever the topic of Louis is brought up, he can't find him. Brilliant.

 

He finds Zayn, though. Talking to a pretty girl he recognizes from his music class. He frowns, looking around and finding one of the fit boys from Louis's footie team. He walks up to him as carefully as he can manage, waiting until Zayn's left to get the girl a drink to tell the jock to go up to her and ask to dance. The girl is more on the quiet and shy side, but the footie player goes up to her anyways and it all works out the way he hoped it would. Zayn comes back moments later with two drinks in his hands and Harry approaches him, grabbing one of the trying and ignoring the confused expression on Zayn's face.

 

"Where's Niall?" Harry drawls. Wait, wrong person. "No- Louis. Where's Louis?" He corrects himself, taking a sip of the drink Zayn had brought for the girl. Zayn shrugs, looking around again for who Harry  assumes is the girl that he had been flirting with in the first place. "You're useless, then." Zayn laughs and reaches for the drink in Harry's hand. Harry pushes his hand away and shakes his head. "Mine," He says, holding it closer to him. He likes not having to be the designated driver. He's never going to parties with Niall ever again if this is the result he gets when he doesn't have to drive.

 

"I'm gonna go find Niall," Zayn says, patting Harry's shoulder and losing himself in the crowd. Harry frowns, disappointed that he's not one step closer to finding Louis. He sighs, downing whatever's left in the cup and leaving it on one of the tables. He would be there to help clean up later anyways.

 

He spends the rest of his time there looking for Louis before the clock strikes midnight, while also trying to steer Niall and Zayn away from flirting with other people. Niall and Zayn need to just hook up or something and let him and Louis stop playing match maker. Louis. He still doesn't know where Louis is. God fucking dammit.

 

A pretty girl from his Creative Writing class tries to flirt with him and he goes along with it just for fun. Flirting is fun. He should've started doing this a long time ago if he would have known how much fun it  was. He flirts with her for about ten minutes, up until the point to where she tries to kiss. He shakes his head and excuses himself quickly, turning around and accidentally bumping into someone. He looks up and scrambles to apologizing, stopping when he realizes it's Louis.  _Finally._  


 

"Louis!" He exclaims, pulling Louis into a hug. Louis laughs, hugging Harry back and pulling away. "I've been looking for you, I need to tell you something," He says, the feelings and thoughts all rushing back to his head. He needs to tell him now. There's five minutes until midnight and then he can kiss Louis and live happily ever after.

 

"Hold on, Haz, I have to find Niall and Zayn," He says, brushing past Harry and disappearing into the crowd. Harry frowns, following after him and reaching for his arm. He misses Louis entirely, losing him  in the party.

 

"Shit," He mumbles, running a hand through his hair and muttering a string of swears. "Fuck fuck fuck," He repeats, moving through the bodies and sitting down on one of the seats. He rests his face in his hands , wallowing in self pity as the time dwindles down. The countdown begins soon and there's still no sign of Louis.

 

Every starts counting down and he's still sat on the sofa by himself, hoping that maybe Louis will come back and he can pull him in and kiss him. But the countdown reaches zero and he's still sat alone, trying to distract himself from all of the other couples kissing. He really shouldn't have expected to spend the New Year any other way except alone.

 

* * *

 

 

Things go back to normal after that. Louis's plan for New Years ended up not working, so all four of them were left without a New Years kiss. Harry half contemplates getting drunk before school starts one day, just so he the courage to tell Louis everything, but he realizes how wrong that could go and he decides against it. This is fucking great.

 

His birthday and Valentine's Day goes by quickly for him, having spent his birthday with Louis, Zayn and Niall. Him and Louis had tried to get them together on Valentine's day, by stuffing love notes in both of their lockers, but they had both recognized the other's handwriting. They hadn't exactly thought that one out too much.

 

This week, though, Louis's practically been glued to Harry's side. Musical auditions were coming up and this year they were putting on Footloose. Louis was determined to get the role as Ren and had been making Harry practice with him non-stop since he had gotten the audition packet. It had been all day and night of going over all of the lines and songs he had to learn for his audition. He wouldn't know the choreography until the day of the dance auditions, but that was another issue that he couldn't stop worrying about.

 

"Louis, you're gonna do fine," Harry reassures while he fixes his camera for the auditions. They're sat outside of the auditorium, Louis going over his lines and Harry making sure he has everything he needs for his camera. He had been assigned for Footloose auditions- Well, he begged for it- and he was going to make sure he didn't mess it up. He had only just gotten away with the pictures for the footie tryouts and he wouldn't let that happen again. Or, well, he probably would but he'd cover it up better than he did last time.

 

"But this is my  _last_  show and I need to have the lead role," Louis stresses, going through the packet and mumbling the lines to himself. Harry rolls his eyes and turns, taking a picture of Louis reading his lines. Louis looks up from his booklet when he hears the shutter go off, biting his lip and raising an eyebrow. "Did you just take a picture?" He asks. Harry nods and goes to view it, smiling softly and showing it to Louis, Louis looks at it and bites down harder on his lip, looking up at Harry and smiling. "You're really good at that." Harry grins and puts his camera away in his bag, standing up with Louis and walking into the auditorium when the audition time rolls around.

 

Harry sits in one of the seats at the back while Louis goes towards where the other people who are auditioning. Louis takes the seat beside Eleanor, instantly starting up a conversation until the Drama director starts speaking.

 

The auditions go by slowly and Harry manages to get a few good shots of each of the performers. Some of the auditions were plain terrible, others were outstanding, such as Eleanor's for the role of Ariel. Louis was the last person signed up for auditions, to which he explained to Harry that first and last always leaves a lasting impression. Harry doesn't really think that's true for everyone. Whether Louis is first, last or in the middle, he's gonna make an impression no matter what.

 

Harry takes double as many pictures of Louis as he had for the other people auditioning. He hesitates for a minute before Louis begins singing, then clicks the record button on his camera. He loses concentration on his camera when Louis begins to sing, his eyes trained on Louis and only listening to his voice. He had heard Louis sing in plays and musicals, but that all had backtracks and harmonies  with other people. This was just him and a piano and Harry's never heard anything so amazing before. There was honestly nothing that Louis Tomlinson wasn't good at.

 

Louis finishes his audition and comes off stage, grabbing his bag and gesturing for Harry to follow him out. Harry does as told, standing up and putting his camera away, leaving with Louis and walking with him to his car.

 

"How do you think you did?" Harry asks while they walking across the school parking lot. Louis looks over at him and smiles softly, shrugging.

 

"Did well, I think," Louis answers, putting the booklet in his bag. Harry mentally scoffs. Louis did more than well, he was phenomenal. If Louis didn't get the lead role than no one else deserved it either. He  was the only one that would be able to play Ren the way he should be played. Louis deserved the lead role, just as he always does. And he would definitely be the one to get it.

 

"You're gonna get the part," Harry says when they reach Louis's car. They both get in and Louis looks over at him, biting his lip. "You always do." Louis grins at that and starts the car.

 

"Thank you." Louis says. Harry knows he's going to get the part. It's a definite thing at this point. There's no one else for it except Louis.

 

* * *

 

 

Louis gets the role. It's no surprise really.

 

Rehearsals start in April after Spring break, to which Harry is thrilled to see that Louis done away with his sweaters and in with his tank tops. Maybe once summer rolls around, he'll stop wearing clothes completely. Now that's a thought.

 

Harry is assigned to take pictures of each of the rehearsals for not only yearbook, but for the end of the year slide show that the drama teacher puts on for all of her Drama students. It's extra work, but he  won't complain about it, considering that this means that he gets to spend extra time with Louis. They walk from class to rehearsal together, going off on their lunch breaks without everyone else. It's not until a week or so after rehearsals start that Zayn joins the set design team and Harry convinces Niall to join the tech team. It then becomes an unintentional hangout for the four of them.

 

It's when the show is nearing the first performance that problems begin to arise.

 

Louis comes up to Harry during break, pulling him out to the hallway while Niall's working on tech stuff and Zayn's messing with the set design. "D'you know Liam?" Louis asks when they're out in the hall.  Harry thinks about the name and bites his lip in concentration. There was a bloke named Liam on the tech team with Niall. He was on the footie team with Louis during the season. He was a nice lad, for what Harry knew him. They didn't talk too much, but then again, Harry didn't really reach out to talk to anyone that's not already in his small group of friends.

 

"Yeah," He says, nodding. "What about him?"

 

"Him and Zayn have been texting since the musical started, apparently. Zayn wants to ask him to Prom," Louis panics, placing his hands on his hips. Harry blinks and widens his eye, looking through the doors and frowning when he sees Zayn and Liam laughing together. He looks back towards where the other techies were, noticing that Niall was staring at two of them as well. He didn't look amused. Shit.

 

He closes the door and looks back at Louis with a worried expression. How did they not notice Liam in time to go and set him up with someone who  _wasn't_  Zayn. How the hell did Zayn get away with this one? Even Niall's flirting with girls had been cut down because Harry kept a close eye on him. Practically every girl Niall has flirted with had a date to Prom now, the dance only being a couple of weeks away. Apparently, Louis hadn't been doing the same thing for Zayn. This kind of puts a setback in their plans.

 

"So we set Liam up with someone else, then," Harry says. Louis bites him lip.

 

"Yeah, but who?" Louis asks, raising an eyebrow. Harry shrugs and looks through the doors again, eyes landing on one of the girls that's sat with Eleanor. Louis comes up beside him, following his gaze and grinning. "Sophia, yes. They've both had massive crushes on each other since the beginning of time." Louis pats his back and goes inside, heading over to Sophia and Eleanor. He sits down with them, laughing and talking for a few minutes before Louis goes up to Liam and pulls him aside. Harry watches them talk for a few minutes before Louis returns, somewhat upset.

 

"What happened?" Harry asks when he comes back.

 

"Liam said he 'really likes Zayn'," He says, faking what's supposedly what Liam's voice sounds like. "Like yeah, but he's liked Sophia for  _longer_. You don't just  _stop_  liking someone." Louis rolls his eyes and sighs. "Dick."

 

Harry blinks and looks back inside. "Be a dick to him, then," Harry suggests. Louis looks up at him and furrows his brows. "Like, you and Zayn are the best of friends. He wouldn't go out with someone you  didn't like." Louis stays quiet for a minute, thinking it over before smiling and nodding.

 

"And then Niall can ask out Zayn or vice versa," Louis says, reaching up and hugging Harry tightly. Harry hugs back and smiles, watching as Louis pulls away and goes back into the auditorium. This was either the greatest idea Harry's had, or the worst. Either way, way Zayn wouldn't ask out Liam and they could still get Niall and Zayn together in time for Prom.

 

He stands by the doors, looking over in Louis's direction and biting his lip. He should ask Louis to prom, somehow. No one else has asked him and he really doesn't think there's the possibility of that happening anytime soon. Or, well, it's  _Louis_  and he could have anyone he wanted, but so far Louis's told him that he's turned down everyone that’s asked him to Prom. Said that he's waiting for a certain person to ask him. Chances are that person isn't Harry, but it was worth a try.

 

He watches as Louis brushes by Liam harshly in front of Zayn. He covers his mouth and suppresses a laugh, looking over at Niall who's trying to do the same. Maybe Harry should just go and tell Niall everything about him and Louis trying to get him and Zayn together. Then Niall can just go and ask Zayn out save them all of this trouble. They've been going at this since the beginning of the school year and at this point, it was getting tiring. The only positive about this was how he had gotten the opportunity to know Louis more and actually become friends with him. The thought of that makes him smile to himself, looking up at Louis and sticking his tongue out at him.

 

Louis breaks character for a minute, before quickly snapping back and continuing his lines. Harry shakes his head and takes his camera out of his bag, taking pictures of all the cast and crew while they did everything they were supposed to do. And if he happens to take a few extra of Louis, then no one really has to know.

 

* * *

 

 

There's only a week until opening night and Prom, yet somehow Liam won't back off of Zayn. Louis's tried everything he could possibly think of to make Zayn think he doesn't like him, yet the two of them are still giggling and flirting with each other. Harry and Louis are both annoyed with this whole thing and honestly they're ready to just call the whole thing off.

 

That is, until, Zayn comes up to the both of them while they're going over their plans for Prom and places a hand on Louis's arm. "Bro, can I talk to you?" He asks. Louis looks to Harry and furrows his brows before looking back over at Zayn.

 

"Sure bro, what it is?" He replies, sitting up straight and leaning forward. Zayn looks between the both of them, biting his lip.

 

"In private, actually," Zayn adds, shoving his hands in his pockets. Louis blinks and nods, looking to Harry who stands up and walks over to the group with the techies. Louis stares at him for a good few seconds, turning back around and looking up at Zayn. Zayn goes and sits beside him, seeming a lot more dramatic than Louis was hoping for. Louis blinks a couple of times, confused as to why Zayn was acting this way around him. Had he done something wrong? Did he accidentally say something that he shouldn't have said?

 

He clears his throat and sits back again. "What do you need to talk to me about?" He asks again, biting his lips and crossing his arms.

 

"Um, it's about you and Liam," Zayn starts. Louis sighs and rolls his eyes, leaning his head back. At this point he really was starting to dislike Liam. He was ruining the plans that him and Harry had in store for Zayn and Niall. That was so disrespectful. "I really like him, Lou and I don't know why you don't. I mean, you know I wouldn't just like, replace you."

 

Louis wants to laugh out loud at the thought. Him being replaced by Liam? That's what Zayn thought this was about, honestly? He might as well just go ahead and tell Zayn he's in love with him, as well. Maybe then that would give him a reason to not want to see Liam anymore.

 

He pauses, replaying the idea in his head and glancing back at Zayn, who's still talking. He drums his fingers against the theater chair's armrest, wondering if it would work or not. If he told Zayn he was in  love with him, then maybe Zayn would feel bad and not want to go out with Liam anymore. Then later, he can tell Zayn he was just fucking around and Niall can ask him out instead. That works- That definitely works. It's not like him and Harry can come up with anything better at this point.

 

"Zayn, I'm in love with you," He says, a bit too quickly. Better to get it out now than later, he supposes. It's just like ripping off a band aid. The faster you do it, the fast it's over with.

 

Zayn stops mid-sentence and widens his eyes at Louis. Well, there went that. This better work or it would be very awkward to explain later on. "You're- What?" He asks, a slight panic in his voice. Louis looks behind him at Harry, who's eyes are fixed on him. He quickly mouths 'trust me', then faces Zayn again and kisses him. Never in his life did he think he would ever have to kiss Zayn for any reason, but here he was. Oh how the tables have turned.

 

He pulls away and resists the urge to wipe his lips avoiding Zayn's gaze and glancing around the auditorium. He sees Liam in one corner, staring at them with wide eyes, while Niall's in another with a confused expression on his face.

 

"Louis- What?" Zayn asks, the panic in his tone having risen. Everyone's eyes are on them and for the first time, Louis doesn't know what to do next. He's never thought to do something so  _dumb_  and reckless before. Well, that's a lie. He's thought to do plenty of dumb and reckless things before. He's almost gotten arrested a few times. But this. This could either be the best thing he's ever done or be the worst thing he's ever done, resulting in ruining his friendship with Zayn. All he really wants to do is laugh and tell Zayn it's all just a prank, but he keeps his cool and just swallows deeply.

 

His voice shakes when he speaks next, no matter how hard he tries to steady it. "I'm in love with you," He says quietly. "I always have been. That's why I've been so...jealous of Liam." Lies lies lies, bt Zayn seems to believe it so he'll go along with it. It's working for now, he thinks. C'mon Zayn, just take the bait so this whole thing can go along faster.

 

"You- We'll um, talk after this. Okay?" Zayn says, standing up and walking back to where the rest of the set designers were. Louis sighs and looks back at Harry, whose eyes have gone wide since Louis kissed Zayn. He takes out his phone and quickly sends a text to Harry, explaining everything he was planning and how he was hoping it would work.

 

Harry texts him back a few seconds later and he immediately opens the message, reading through it and laughing softly at it.

 

_'you're an idiot.'_

 

* * *

 

 

"It worked! Harry!" Louis exclaims, as he walks into Harry's bedroom the day after the Zayn fiasco at rehearsal. He sets his bag on the floor and collapses on Harry's bed, turning his head to face Harry and grinning. "Zayn said he won't ask Liam to Prom if it'll make me feel bad. All you have to do is tell Niall that I was just playing a prank on Zayn so he can ask him. Then I'll text Z that I was joking so he'll say yes. Foolproof."

 

Harry puts his journal down and raises an eyebrow at Louis. He wonders how Louis comes up with half of these plans, sometimes. It's cute seeing how excited and animated he gets every time he comes up with them. "And then what about Liam?"

 

"Asked Sophia to Prom right after everything happened. They're really happy, actually," Louis says, sitting up and grabbing Harry's journal. He reads through the lyrics that Harry's written that day, sticking  his tongue out in concentration and grabbing Harry's pen. Harry blinks and by the time he's processed what's happening, Louis's already written in his journal. No one else has ever written in his journal before. And Louis just did. Louis just. He just took the pen right out of his hand and wrote in it. And Harry let him. Harry is really fucking whipped.

 

"What'd you write?" Harry asks, grabbing the notebook back from Louis and reading the last couple of lines. The lyrics fit with the rest of Harry's so smoothly, like they were just made to be there. That had  been the part that Harry was struggling with and Louis had done it so easily. Like he's said before, there was nothing Louis Tomlinson couldn't do. He'd find something, eventually. Not today, but someday. There had to be something he was bad at. "I like it," He says, smiling softly. Louis grins and lays back down, looking over at Harry and biting his lip.

 

Harry should ask him to Prom right now. Like- Right now, right now. This was the perfect time to do it. They were both in a good mood and Louis still didn't have a date. What if Harry was the one person Louis was waiting on? What is he was the person Louis had turned down all of those other guys for? He would never know, if he never asked, right? It's worth a shot.

 

He opens his mouth to say something, but Louis beats him to it. "I have a date for Prom," Louis says quickly, looking back up at the ceiling. Harry's face falls. Louis has a date. For Prom. Louis is going to  Prom with some that isn't Harry. But he had- He said he was waiting for someone and he turned down so many people and now he's just, going with someone that wasn't  _Harry_. This wasn't right, it couldn't be. Who the hell was he going with? "Nick Grimshaw," Louis tells him, as if he's reading his mind. Nick. Harry knows Nick. He's on the yearbook committee with Harry and he does the school news and all of that. He's taking Louis to Prom.  _Him._  That's who Louis had been waiting for?

 

"Oh- Um, that's good, then," Harry mumbles, flipping a couple of pages in his notebook and quickly scribbling down more song lyrics. He should've been faster about it. He had so many chances to tell Louis everything and now Louis was going to Prom with someone else. He has to sit there and watch Louis laugh and slow dance with someone else. He's going to be sitting on the sidelines while Louis has the time of his life with someone that wasn't him. How could he have been so naive? There had been no chance of him being the guy that Louis was waiting for. He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up  in the first place. Him and Louis wouldn't have worked, anyways. Louis was amazing and he was just...Harry.

 

"Yeah."

 

It stays silent between the two of them for a few minutes, only the sound of Harry writing in his journal being heard. "I'm not going," He says after he's had enough of the silence. It was on impulse, for once. He's already bought his ticket and rented his tux, but if he wasn't going with Louis, then he really didn't want to go at all . He didn't want to see someone else being the reason for Louis's crinkly eyed smile, or his too loud laugh that was so sweet and endearing. He wanted that to be him. He wanted to make Louis happy and trip over his own two feet while they were dancing. It was supposed to be him.

 

"Why not?" Louis asks, almost sounding hurt. That must be a figment of Harry's imagination. Louis wouldn't be hurt by Harry not going. It's not like he'd notice. He'd be too busy with his date. "It's our last day as seniors, Harry. It's just that and graduation left, not much we can do to celebrate besides Prom."

 

"I'm just not feeling it," He replies, shutting his journal and setting it aside. He avoids Louis's stare, grabbing his phone and pretending to look busy. "There's gonna be other parties and stuff. I don't even have a date." Yeah, because he was too much of a coward to ask out the date he actually wanted. Fucking great, wasn't it?

 

"Right," Louis says, sitting up and facing away from Harry. "I have to go, actually. I have to watch my sisters." He stands up from the bed and grabs his bag, not looking at Harry the entire time. Harry keeps his eyes on his phone, biting his lip and watching Louis from the corner of his eye. "See you around then, H."

 

"See you around, Lou," Harry replies, continuing to look down until Louis leaves and his bedroom door is shut. He grabs his journal and throws it across the room, running a hand through his hair and pulling at it. "Fuck," He swears, shutting his eyes and leaning back in his bed.

 

Louis texts him later on that Zayn and Niall are officially Prom dates.

 

He responds with a smiley face and neither of them say anything else. He thinks this was a falling out. He doesn't know why his heart hurts so much. Except he does.

 

He doesn't like how a broken heart feels.

 

* * *

 

He feels so miserable on the day of Prom. His tux is haunting him from his closet, telling him to just get dressed and go. He spent too much money on the ticket, anyways. Maybe he should go. Find a nice guy to dance with and pretend Louis doesn't exist for the whole night. He'd get over Louis eventually. He has to. Louis was never into him in the first place, it shouldn't be too hard to be happy with someone else. He just needs to find the right person.

 

His day is spent ignoring any messages from Niall or Zayn. Louis hasn't tried to text him since their fallout. If that's even what he could call it. It wasn't even an argument or anything. They just sort of stopped speaking to each other. Like the past school year didn't happen at all. Like Louis could forget him so easily. Like none of it even mattered to him. Maybe Louis was like every popular jock you see on movies and TV shows. Fascinated by the idea of playing hero for the shy, quiet kid and then leaving when they get bored of them. Maybe Louis was just putting up with him for Zayn and Niall's sake.

 

He doesn't know what to do with himself. He spends two hours cleaning his room, an hour baking, another few hours messing around on his guitar and trying to figure out chords for one of his songs. What else is he supposed to do on the night he was supposed to be having the time of his life with his friends? He was supposed to be getting ready for Prom. Taking cheesy pictures with Louis, Zayn and Niall, whining when his mum takes one too many. He was supposed to be a typical teenager tonight and instead, he was sulking in his room.

 

By the time he's finished with all of that, he's still got two hours until Prom was actually supposed to start. He glances over at his phone, the text messages slowly dwindling down until the tone stops completely. Zayn and Niall have finally given up on trying to reach him, thankfully. Don't get him wrong, he's glad that they're finally together and happy, but they would ask him about Louis and that's not something he wants to talk about at the moment.

 

He stands in front of his mirror, glances at his right bicep and biting his lip. He was eighteen now. He could get a tattoo without his mum's permission, if he wanted. He takes another few minutes to think about it, then grabs his jacket and bag. He might as well, it's not like he has anywhere else to be or anything else to do.

 

An hour and a half later, he has a fresh, new tattoo on his arm wrapped in the protective wrap. His mum was going to kill him when she saw it, but he wasn't really concerned about that right now. It's not like she really could say anything about it. He was eighteen and it was his body, so all was well.  

 

He stares at it in the mirror again, smiling slightly. He's almost proud of it, proud of himself for making such an impulsive decision. He wouldn't have done something like this a few months ago. He would've been too afraid to, probably would've back out last minute. But here he was, stood in his room with a tattoo on his right bicep. It wasn't anything big, just a star. It might not mean anything to anyone else, but it was a bigger step for him and he was so proud of it. It meant a lot to him.

 

There's a knock on the door downstairs twenty minutes later, much to his confusion. He sighs, rolling his t-shirt sleeve back down and going downstairs. He opens the door, blinking when he sees Zayn and Niall standing in front of him in their suits. He shakes his head, going to shut the door, but is stopped by Niall pushing the door open again. He groans, leaving the door open and turning around. They can't physically make him go to Prom. Neither of them have the strength for it, first of all. And secondly, they'd have to make him get dressed first and that wasn't happening. He would not get in that limo with Louis and fucking Nick. Not happening.

 

"Go away," He says and it comes out much more harshly than he intended it to be. He hears Niall sigh from behind him. They don't take directions very well.

 

"Go get dressed, you're going to Prom," Niall demands. Harry scoffs and goes to the kitchen, grabbing a soda from the fridge.

 

"No," He replies, coming back out and sitting on the sofa. "I'm not getting in that fucking limo just to see Louis and Nick making fucking heart eyes at each other." Niall looks at him sadly and glances over at Zayn. No amount of sad eyes from Niall would make him get into that limo. He'd rather pretend none of this is happening, rather than make a complete fool of himself. If his high school legacy is the quiet kid that sang songs sometimes and missed Prom, then so be it. He likes that better than the idiot that pined after Louis Tomlinson and got rejected. No thanks.

 

Both Niall and Zayn give each other a quick glance and shake their heads, leaving and shutting the door behind them. Harry thinks he's in the clear, but there's a knock at his door minutes later and he groans internally. They just won't let up, will they? Why does this matter so much to them? It's his high school experience, not theirs.

 

He gets up and opens the door, prepared to tell them both to fuck off. Except it's not Niall. Or Zayn. It's Louis. All by himself.

 

"No," Harry says immediately, turning around and not bothering to close the door. He hurries up to his bedroom, hoping that Louis would catch the hint and leave. He needs to be anywhere but there, right  now. He needs to be at Prom, right now, dancing with Nick and having the time of his life. That's what Louis needs to be doing.

 

"Harry," Louis says as he comes into Harry's room a few minutes later. "Will you please just talk to me? We haven't spoken in at least a week and it's killing me," He pleads, looking at Harry with sad eyes. Harry looks over his body, blinking when he gets back up to Louis's face. His hair is up in a quiff and his cheekbones have never looked sharper. Louis looks so beautiful right now and Harry's a complete mess. This is a metaphor for something, he's sure.

 

"There's nothing to talk about, Louis," Harry says, sitting on his bed and refusing to look back at Louis. The older boy takes a deep breath and steps towards the end of the bed and sitting down.

 

"Please tell me why you're upset at me."

 

Harry stares at him for a minute. He's not mad at him. He's just- He's so fucking frustrated about this whole situation. Four years spent over pining over this idiot, one year spent following him around like a  lost puppy and he has nothing to show for it. He's so fucking pathetic and it's like Louis doesn't even care. So whatever, he might as well tell him. He's got nothing to lose.

 

"I love you," Harry says quietly, looking Louis straight in the eye. "I've been  _in love_  with you since freshman year. And you've never even noticed."

 

It's silent in the room and Harry's sure he's completely fucked it up. He's sure that Louis's gonna get up and walk back to where Zayn and Niall are because he doesn't want to deal with any of Harry's bullshit. Harry's not  _it_  for him. Harry's not the one he was waiting for to be asked to Prom by. That's not Harry. He doesn't feel anything for Harry.

 

Louis doesn't leave, though. He just sits there quietly. And before Harry can realize what's happening, Louis's leaning in and kissing him.

 

He's grabbing at the front of Harry's t-shirt like his life depends on it, moving his lips against Harry's so smoothly, with much more meaning than he had when they had done the fake proposal on Louis's birthday. This time the kiss is real and meaningful and Louis's not pretending. This is real to the both of them. This is so fucking real.

 

Harry shuts his eyes and runs his fingers through Louis's hair, gently gripping it and taking control. Louis lets him, letting Harry guide his lips against his own pair.

 

Louis pulls away moments after, breathing harshly and mumbling against Harry's lips. "I love you- I've loved you for so long. I love you so fucking much, Harry Styles," He kisses Harry deeper, tangling his  fingers in Harry's curls and allowing Harry to lay him down on the bed. Harry pulls his t-shirt off, tossing it to the side and leaning back down to kiss Louis again. Louis turns his head before he can, his eyes fixed on the wrap on Harry's arm. "You got a tattoo," He says, reaching forward to gently touch the wrap. Harry nods, turning Louis's head so he's looking up at him. He leans down and catches Louis's lips on his, the kiss being so gentle and delicate, as if it wouldn't last.

 

"Impulsive," Harry answers quickly, resting his forehead on Louis's. "Didn't know what else to do." He shrugs and goes back down to kiss Louis again, being taken by surprise when Louis flips him over and pins him down to the bed. He blinks up at Louis with wide eyes, not sure where to go from here. That was unexpected. Then again, he hadn't really been expecting a make out session with Louis on the night of Prom.

 

"I know what you could do now," Louis says, pulling off his tie and taking his blazer off. He throws both of them off to the side, cupping Harry's face and kissing him deeply. Harry reaches up and lets his fingers find the front buttons of Louis's shirt, doing his best to unbutton them with his eyes closed. "You're such a fucking knob," Louis laughs, pulling away from the kiss to unbutton his shirt. He tosses that somewhere in the room and returns his lips to Harry's. He bites down on Harry's bottom lips gently while Harry lets his hand trail down Louis's back. This was far more Louis than Harry had ever expected to get.

 

He lets one hand get lost in Louis's hair while the other rests on the small of Louis's back. Louis shifts himself, sitting up straight and looking down at Harry with bright red lips and blushed cheeks. Harry stares at him and breathes hard, his pupils blown and his face just as flushed as Louis's. "Are we gonna...?" He asks, biting his lip. He assumes Louis knows what he's doing, considering he's had the most boyfriends between the two of them. Louis sure is acting like he knows what he's doing, which is great because Harry doesn't have a fucking clue.

 

"If you want," Louis tells him, running a hand through his hair. "I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do," He adds quickly, staring at Harry nervously. Harry shakes his head pulling Louis back down to kiss him.

 

"I want to. With you. I've wanted to for so long," Harry whispers, kissing Louis quickly and gently. It would be such an honor to give his virginity up to Louis. He had waited so long for this moment to finally happen and here it was. There was no chance in hell of Harry saying no to this opportunity. "I've wanted you for so long," He adds again. Louis nods quickly and moves his hands down, taking his belt off and pushing his pants off. Shit- Harry's got an almost naked Louis Tomlinson on him. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he'd get to this point.

 

Louis gets off of Harry and unbuttons Harry's jeans, pushing them down along with Harry's underwear. Harry's already hard cock curves to his stomach, already leaking with pre-cum. "Come to the edge of the bed?" Louis asks, getting off the bed and sitting up on his knees. Harry's confused for a moment, but soon realizes what Louis's planning to do. Fuck- Shit, he's about to get blown by Louis. His life can't get any better than this.

 

He sits up and scoots to the edge of the bed, feeling a tad bit self conscious about the entire thing. He's naked. In front of Louis. It's not the first time, no, but this time there's actually a  _purpose_  . He takes a deep breath and looks down at Louis.

 

Louis's eyes widen quickly at the sight if Harry, but he quickly shakes his head and wraps his hand around the base of Harry's cock, sticking his tongue out in concentration and seeming just as nervous as Harry is. Harry blinks down at him a couple of times and raises an eyebrow. He's seen Louis nervous for things before, like auditions and stuff like that, but never quite like this. S'like he's almost too nervous to try. Like he's afraid to mess it all up.

 

"Louis?" He says and the older boy looks up at him. "Have you done this before?"

 

Louis blinks and stays quiet, biting his lips and slowly shaking his head. Harry pauses. Shit- They're both virgins. There went any hope of this entire thing going smoothly.  

 

Not that it really matters, honestly. He's got Louis Tomlinson on his knees in front of him and yeah, maybe they're both really awkward and nervous about this whole thing, but they'll both figure it out together. He's sure Niall and Zayn have left without them by now, anyways. Harry mentally laughs to himself. There went Louis's date.

 

"I thought it'd make you feel better if you thought I knew what I was doing," Louis says, sitting against the heels of his feet and looking down in embarrassment. Harry reaches his hand forward and lifts Louis's head so they're looking at each other. He smiles softly and runs a hand through Louis's hair.

 

"Lou, it makes me feel better knowing that neither of us know what the fuck we're doing. Now I won't feel like a proper idiot when I don't know what to do next, because you won't either. We're in this together, yeah?" He reassures. Louis smiles and nods, sitting back up on his knees and wrapping this hand around the base of Harry's cock again. He takes a deep breath and leans forward, nervously swiping his tongue over the head of Harry's length before wrapping his mouth over the tip. Harry sucks in a harsh breath, biting down on his bottom lip and staring down at Louis. This was actually happening, right now. Louis's mouth was actually on his dick. Science is fucking amazing.

 

Louis slowly moves his mouth down, flicking his tongue around Harry's cock and shutting his eyes. Harry moves his hands to grip Louis's hair, tugging gently at the older boy's quiff and stifling a moan. He grips Louis's hair tightly as the smaller boy takes him down. Louis moans softly around Harry's length, resting his free hand on Harry's thigh. He slowly begins to bob his head, emitting a moan from Harry's lips. Harry' squeezes his eyes shut, leaning his head back in pleasure. This was like a dream come true. Four years of waiting and this is what he gets from it. How the hell did he get this lucky?

 

"Shit Lou," Harry mumbles. Louis looks up at Harry through his eyelashes, to which Harry opens his eyes and stares down at Louis. All this does is confirm to Harry that there's never a moment when Louis doesn't look absolutely stunning. His perfectly done hair was all a mess and his face was properly flushed, yet he was still the most beautiful person Harry had ever laid his eyes on. Was that too emotional for a blow job? He wasn't exactly sure what the levels of not sappy enough and too sappy were when it came to sex. He'll figure all of that out later, he supposes. He's a bit busy now

 

The older boy pulls off before Harry's close enough to come and both of them stare at each other for a full minute in awe and silence. That really just happened. Louis just gave him a blow job. Happy fucking Prom. "Was that-" Harry doesn't give him a chance to finish, pulling him up and laying him back on the bed. He leans over him and kisses him for what seems like the millionth time tonight, but he doesn't care. He'll kiss Louis as much as he pleases for as long as he pleases and the only one allowed to tell him otherwise was Louis himself.

 

"That was fucking brilliant," He says, peppering kisses all over Louis's face. Louis grins and giggles, running his hand through Harry's hair. "You are brilliant, Louis." Harry rests his forehead on Louis's and  smiles.

 

"I love you," Louis says quietly. "I fell in love with the shy freshman that walked into my English class on the first day of school three years ago." Harry stares at him for a minute. since freshman year. Louis's felt like this about him since freshman year, just like he had. All this time he had thought Louis didn't feel the same and he had. Harry had a chance this whole time.

 

"You should've said something," Harry tells him. "I sure as hell wasn't going to say anything." He grins and kisses Louis again.

 

Louis laughs and shakes his head. "I was nervous. Thought you'd think I was a dumb jock or something."

 

"Louis, you are a dumb jock," He says and Louis smacks his shoulder playfully. Harry grins and kisses Louis's cheek, pushing his hair out of his face. "But I love you anyways," He adds, burying his face in Louis's neck. Louis trails a finger down Harry's back, tracing letters. "You are so fucking cheesy, oh my god," Harry says, his laugh muffled. Louis smacks his back and laughs. "Do you think we can do this and still get to Prom in time?" He asks, sitting up and looking down at Louis. Louis shrugs.

 

"Can we do it anyways?"

 

Harry rolls his eyes. "What happened to, 'we have to celebrate the end of senior year properly'?" He mocks Louis's words from last week. Louis sticks his tongue out at Harry and props himself up on his elbows.

 

"This is so much better than Prom, don't you think?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. Harry pretends to think about it and Louis hits his shoulder. "Dick." Harry blows him a kiss and grins. "How are we gonna  do this, then?"

 

Harry blinks and shrugs. "Should I top? I mean- I don't know. Do you want to top? You can, if you want, I don't mind-"

 

"Harry," Louis says. Harry stops talking and stares at him. Maybe Louis does kind of know what he's doing. Harry should probably just stop talking and let Louis do everything from now on. That might help  the both of them in the long run. "You can top, love," He tells him, smiling softly. Harry nods slowly, biting his lip and looking down Louis's body. Louis is so fucking gorgeous and his body exceeds all of Harry's expectations and- Shit. He is about to top.

 

Louis pulls down his boxers and looks back up at Harry, cheeks flushed. Strands of hair are stuck to his forehead, but Harry thinks he looks amazing regardless.

 

Harry leans over and opens the bottom drawer of his nightstand, pulling out a bottle of lube and a condom packet. Louis looks over and snorts, letting out a loud laugh and confusing Harry. He notices the confusion on Harry's face and he stops laughs, shaking his head. "S'that why you never let me open that drawer?" He asks. Harry smiles sheepishly and shrugs. "I thought it was porn." Harry laughs at that and shakes his head, opening the lube and squeezing it out on his fingers. The gel is cold on his fingers so he rubs it between them to warm it up and spread it evenly. "Do you want me on my back or on my stomach?"

 

Harry shrugs. "Whichever’s easiest for you," He tells him. Louis nods, turning over and laying on his stomach with his head in his hands. Harry stares at his back, almost in a trance before he snaps himself back. He bites his lip and presses a finger against Louis's rim. He hears Louis suck in a sharp breath and his nerves start to ease. They're both new at this.

 

He slips in the first finger slowly and Louis mutters a swear under his breath. Harry crooks his finger and moves it, letting both him and Louis get used to the feeling. Louis whines softly and Harry takes that as a sign to push another finger in. He does and starts scissoring his fingers in Louis.

 

"Fuck- Harry," Louis moans, putting his head down on the bed and gripping the bed sheets. Harry moves his fingers faster, bending both of them and biting his lip in concentration. "Oh- Fuck, shit- Haz," Louis breathes, shutting his eyes.

 

Harry slips in a third finger and spreads the three of them, pushing them in and out at a quick pace. "You alright?" He asks. Louis nods quickly and pushes his hips up.

 

"Ace," He replies, sounding out of breath already. "Fucking ace." He sounds desperate. Harry's done that to him, he's the one that's making Louis feel this way. He's the only one that's made Louis feel this way.

 

Harry nods and pulls his fingers out, grabbing the condom packet and tearing it open. "Get on your back?" He asks, rolling the condom on. Louis obliges, turning over and getting on his back. His cheeks are redder than before and he's biting down on his bottom lip. Him and Harry stare at each other for a quick moment before Harry looks down, grabbing the lube and squeezing it on his hand. He spreads it on his cock and lines himself up with Louis's hole, looking back over at Louis. Louis's lips are parted slight, waiting for Harry to push in.

 

"Ready?" Harry asks, grabbing Louis's hips. Louis nods and stares up at the ceiling. Harry takes a deep breath, pressing himself into Louis slowly. Louis moans, gripping the bed sheets tightly. "Lou- Fuck," Harry mumbles, pushing himself in until he bottoms out. He stays like that for a minute, letting him an Louis get used to the feeling. This is it, then. He's losing his virginity to Louis.

 

Louis takes deep, harsh breaths, grabbing Harry's hand in his and squeezing it. "Move- Harry. Please," He whines, pushing his hip. Harry does as told and slowly starts thrusting his hips. Louis tightens his hold on Harry's hand and moans his name loudly. "Fuck- Shit," Louis swears. Harry gradually starts picking up his speed, making sure Louis's comfortable with it. Louis lets out soft "uh uh uhs" as Harrys starts to go faster, whimpering and fluttering his eyes shut. He pushes his hips up again while Harry leans down to kiss him. He fists his fingers in Harry's hair, pulling him down and pressing their lips together. Louis swipes his tongue over Harry's top lip and bites down gently on his bottom one. Harry moans into his mouth, closing his eyes and keeping up a steady rhythm for his thrusts.

 

"Fuck- Haz, m'close, I'm gonna," Louis breathes, pulling Harry's hair. Harry changes his angle, hitting Louis's prostate with each thrust. "Ah- Uh, fuck, Harry," Louis whines, drawling out Harry's name. Harry keeps moving his hips, kissing Louis while the older boy comes on his stomach and cries out in pleasure. Harry comes not too long after him, riding out his orgasm and moaning against Louis's lips. He pulls out and collapses beside Louis, turning to face him. Louis looks at him, both of them panting hard. Louis leans forward and kisses Harry passionately. Harry kisses back before pulling away, taking off the condom, tying it and throwing it somewhere on the floor.

 

"Louis," Harry says when he regains his breath. "Are we, like, together?" He asks, biting his lip nervously. Louis smiles at him and nods, reaching down and lacing his fingers in Harry's. Harry grins. "Will you do me the honors of going to Prom with me, Louis Tomlinson?"

 

Louis laughs and nods, burying his face in Harry's shoulder. "Of course you dork," He says, kissing the top of Harry's shoulder. Harry looks down at him and smiles, pressing a kiss in his hair. Louis was his boyfriend, his first and his Prom date. And he couldn't be happier.

 

* * *

 

 

They show up to Prom forty five minutes before it's over with somewhat messy hair and flushed cheeks. Harry's mum had come home ten minutes after they had showered and gotten ready. She has given Harry the look that she knew something had happened, but she hadn't said anything him about it. She had, though, taken far too many pictures of him and Louis in every corner and space that she could think of by the time she was finally finishing up, him and Louis were pulling funny faces every few photos just to throw her off.

 

Niall and Zayn take one look at them when they walk in and smirk, already knowing what had happened. Louis blushes in embarrassment when Zayn brings it up, while Harry wraps an arm around his waist and smiles down at him fondly.

 

"My boobear's all grown up, isn't he?" Zayn says, pulling Louis into a tight hug. Louis rolls his eyes, pushing him away and hitting his arm. Zayn laughs and messes with his hair, not that it's going to make much of difference. He grabs Louis's arm and pulls him over to where the food and drinks are, making him explain everything that had gone on with him and Harry. Everything except the whole losing their virginity thing. Zayn was fine with not hearing that bit.

 

Niall nudges Harry's shoulder when it's just the two of them. "So you and Tommo, then?" He asks. Harry grins and nods shoving his hands in his pockets. Him and Louis. Four years and the unthinkable has finally happened.

 

Him and Louis had spent ten minutes in bed together before they decided to get up and take a shower, telling each other all the dumb things they had done before they had knew each other. Harry showed  Louis his journal again, telling him how each of the songs were about and for him. He even showed him the song that Louis had added lyrics, completed. He had hummed the melody to him, hoping to gain his approval. Louis had loved it, telling Harry that he couldn't wait to hear it with the guitar behind it.

 

Louis had explained to him how he always caused his pranks and scenes in hopes of catching Harry's attention. He had even flunked a couple of the tests for the classes they had together in hopes that Harry would have to tutor. That didn't exactly work out, as he had to stay after school with the teachers instead. And the newest addition, of course, lying about having a Prom date just to see what Harry would do. That one is Harry's favorite.

 

"I can't believe it," Harry says, looking over in the corner of the room where Zayn and Louis are stood, laughing about something. Harry smiles, looking down at his feet and humming along to the song that  was playing. "We're dating, Niall. He said he loves me."

 

Niall rolls his eyes and nods, patting Harry's shoulder. "You've done it, mate. When's the wedding, then?" He teases. Harry laughs and shakes his head, opening his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by the music cutting out and their principal stepping on stage. Zayn and Louis rejoin him and Niall, Louis standing next to Harry and inking their hands together. Harry glances down quickly and smiles to himself, look up at the stage and biting on his bottom lip.

 

The principal is getting ready to announce Prom King and Queen. They call for all of the candidates to come on stage, which leaves Harry alone with Niall as Louis and Zayn takes their places on stage. Harry blows Louis a kiss once he's on stage, smiling proudly and listening as they read of all of the names for the candidates. It's no doubt that Louis's going to win Prom King, everyone knows that. There hasn't been a single thing that Louis's done throughout high school that he hasn't come out on top for. Footie captain, drama club president, senior class president and now Prom King would most likely be added to that list.

 

They do Prom King first, the principal grabbing the envelope and pausing dramatically before reading out the name. "And your Prom King this year is...Louis Tomlinson!" Everyone cheers as Louis high fives Zayn and steps forward, letting them place the crown on his head. Harry claps and cheers the loudest, he's sure.

 

"And now for your Prom Queen," their principal says, the crowd quieting down. "Your Prom Queen for this year is..." He stops speaking and reads over the paper again, clearing his throat. "It seems as though there was a write in this year. Correcting myself, your other Prom  _King_  for this year is...Harry Styles!"

 

Harry freezes where he's stood, only beginning to walk towards the stage when Niall shoves him forward. He steps up on stage and accepts the crown, looking down at his hand when Louis steps beside him and grabs it. He turns his head and grins at his boyfriend, letting his impulse take control and pulling Louis in to kiss him on stage. Everyone cheers for them, all except the adults that are quick to rush them off the stage for their dance together as Prom King and well, King. Louis pulls Harry down and brings their bodies close together as a ballad starts to play. He rests his head on Harry's shoulder, closing his eyes and letting Harry lead.

 

"Niall and Zayn told everyone to write you in. They all agreed because we're the reason they've all got dates tonight," Louis says quietly. "What a power couple we are."

 

Harry laughs softly and nods, placing his hand on Louis's lower back and holding him close. "The dream team."

 

Louis smiles against his shoulder. "Yeah. I like that."

 

They rent a hotel room after the dance is over, ordering wine and getting drunk and giggly together the whole night. Earlier's events repeat themselves, and end in their legs tangled together and Louis's head rested on Harry's chest. Harry lets his fingers slip through Louis's hair, pressing a kiss against his forehead and humming softly as Louis falls asleep in his arms. It's then when he looks down at Louis sleeping that he realizes exactly how lucky he is and how much more lucky he's going to be. 

  


 

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is **[pointstohome](http://pointstohome.tumblr.com)**!


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